A Crimson Headache [TBD vs Demo Deer] Day 1.5

[Dana Lheureux D9F [Tom]]

Cigarette ash like wildfire

Burning holes in the night time
Open scars cut like barbed wire
White lies flying high like a ceasefire

JJ's dead.

The words sting to the roof of his mouth after they had been said, feet taking him far, far away from the death at the center of the chaos. The air growing heavier with the cold that follows him. The two tributes from three following him, at least he hoped they were. No more canons had sounded in the distance after the four cut through the sky with loud booms. Four dead and one of them was on his own hands. JJ didn't deserve to die. JJ didn't deserve to be shot by an arrow from Eva. The sight of red coming from the body of someone else makes his stomach churn, the pit that lays beneath wanting to come up, but he holds it back as he breathes deeply into the chill. Hooves sounding in his ears, with a heart that threatens to give out, but they were far enough away from the bloodbath for now.

Eva had killed JJ with no retribution. A cowboy stood there watching as someone he thought he'd help out fell to the girl from four where water glimmers and good lives are. Jed used to dream of the ocean with him, where the water went on for miles and miles in their heads. A sea of white lays before him though, like what he imagined the ocean to be like in the end, except blue and not crunchy. The cold was also not his favorite thing, but he'd deal since this is fate had in store for him. Hands shaking against the pole weapon that's in his hands, the thought of JJ in his mind as he dares to scream out for the arena to hear about how he wished to have done something more.

There's no scream. He isn't stupid after all.

Three others had died in the mix too. Apollo, the female from one, and the male from twelve, the ladder of which he had hit with guilt in his heart. Blood was on the pole weapon that he tried to wipe off as quickly as possible in his run away from the center of chaos. Breaths have slowed down to a calmer breath, adrenaline fading from his veins as he moves his hand to adjust his hat to put on the mask that he had received from the chaos. Face poking out through the hole upon the black thing. Ears beginning to get heat from it as he places his hat back over the mask. Apollo was dead. Twelve's blood was also on his own weapon, but he closes his eyes for a moment.

Hoping to anyone out there that this wasn't real. That the world didn't feel like a violent place anymore, but it was. Life was violent, just like the business that his family was in. Picking cattle for slaughter. All he could do now was try to survive and try to avenge JJ. Eva wasn't what he had expected at first glance, but now he knew that she could kill like any of them. A sigh comes from his throat as his legs continue, hoping Cade and Maisie followed him out of there. Silence fills his head as he continues with the crunching sound of snow following him like a shadow.

The wind picks up instantly as the sight of trees appear. Bending towards the east with a determination to make them head that way, but he doesn't move. Hand on his head as the hat blows in the wind gently. Something rises in his stomach again as a chill doesn't leave his body, eyes glancing about from tree to tree as they approach the wooded area. Heart starts hammering already in a defensive manner, if Abel was there, the horse would have been spooked by it all. There's no doubt about it, but the place would be safe from tributes that could follow them. He's barely speaking out to them in almost silent words.

"We'll be safe in here, I reckon."

After speaking out to them his thoughts, he moves inwards from the barren snows to the woods that bends east, from what he could tell in that moment. Eyes scanning around him like he could feel himself being watched the entire time. Bella could be out there, but he doesn't think about her and the kindness she shares. The warmth that she could give in a hug that he took for granted. Raven's still out there, alive, fighting to survive like the rest of them. A silence in the forest feels unusual. Almost like, they were meant to come this way. Eyes move to something that catches his eyes, but nothing's there.

Nothing is ever there.

Half of the time, he imagines it's Abel rushing to his rescue to ride away, but it's not Abel. The sound of footsteps crunching in the snow sets his eyes upon not just one, not just two, but three creatures with antlers and a horn. Leathery grey skin catches his eyes as he holds himself steady. Mutts already. There gamemakers were not playing around, maybe they expected them to do well based on their scores. All three of them had gotten above a seven. Worry catches in his face as he holds up the pole weapon thing and lets out a breath. Mutts. Great, just what he needed on the first day in the games.

"We've got company."

Caine's heart pounds as the sound of hooves clamber in his ears again. The score of nine ringing against his ears again. Bella's hug shattering his shell in the private training session. Maisie and Cade there with him. JJ's death fresh in his mind. Jed will be watching. He couldn't kill with him watching, but he'd fight. Fight to the best of his ability, especially against these giants. Moving forward with his hat gently blowing along his head, face not as cold as before, he strikes with JJ in his mind.

He wasn't going to let anyone else die on him.

Not anymore.

Dropping flags on the shoreline
This is as far as I can feel right
'Cause what you don't know
Can haunt you

(Caine Winchester attacks Demo Deer #1 with ski pole [spear])
pIC2odrHspear
(Deep Gash on Stomach 9.0 +1 for mutt tamer)

spear

[calla]

down and out, and out of luck,
we're spinning but the needle's stuck,
let's go have some fun before
they put us in the ground

The cannon fire shakes your bones. Four dead already, tremors in the ground, and any of them could have been you.

( Should have been you. )

You could barely keep up with the chaos; fog curling through your head and fear thrumming in your veins. But, distantly, you registered every crack, every scream, every sound of death that reached you and used it as fuel to just fucking run. At least you're good for something. And you've always been good at looking out for yourself. Maybe it's because no one's ever been there to hold your hand, to guide and do shit for you like a child. Strength and weakness intertwining; it's never bothered you before.

( Everyone leaves in the end. )

All you know - one of the fallen was an ally. A loss that numbs you into dragging yourself across a frozen hellscape. But the survivors; a boy from Ten and your district partner, you still know nothing about besides the numbers sewn into their skin.

Maybe it's better that way; to be so distanced that your name won't be remembered. You don't need anyone to weep over you.

Not anymore, at least.
Maybe it's a good thing.

But the most dangerous word in your vocabulary is

maybe.

Because maybe you'll make it another day. And maybe you're more than just a number, a puppet and a pawn to play with. Maybe you'll get some fucked up kind of peace when you die.

But you know you can't keep your hands clean forever.

( "JJ's dead." )

There's an empty room in your head, white walled and marked as home. Colours bleeding and fading behind your eyes like liquid memories, moving slow in a mock motion picture. A film strip burning, black and curled around the edges because home doesn't exist anymore. Something buried in the bottom of a glass instead, childhood dares and c'mon man just one more.

It's lonely with the dead.

Blue fingertips, red heart; you've become violet and it's like a reminder, some kind of watercolour token scalded into your skin. It's like a newborn galaxy pressed into your eyelids, lilacs on a windowsill and watching a purple sky fade to orange from the fire escape. Rib cage fluttering, the air in your chest tastes like anticipation. Because you know how the next part of story goes. Canyon echoes in your skull, mechanic melancholy working its way through your system like a disease and the violence creeps up your spine.

The price to pay, you guess, because your mind still functions and you have two allies that you trust.

Sort of.
Because,
that's always been a problem.

You can barely see Caine and Maisie through blurred vision, consequences of a cavern in your chest that aches with every step. You just follow and hope, distancing yourself from death -

- but then what is it you're going towards?

A foreign weapon in your hands, r i p r e d you're so fucking fucked.

You've always hated the cold; thin blankets and shitty heating. Waking up late at night ( or early morning, because you could never tell the difference ), a bed void of body heat and a cold sweat beading on bare skin, last night's mistakes thrown on the table.

Man, you could use a hit right about now.
Too little too late, you guess.

There are shapes on the horizon, an outline of trees and it makes your skin crawl. You remember shadow puppets on the wall, being ten, small for your age and terrified of the old woman who lived next door. Crooked fingers and creaking tree limbs; it's not a very helpful thought.

You're in your head when the forest crashes, mutts emerging and it feels like waking up from a restless dream. You break the surface of a lake, starlight reflected in the waters, and remember the eleven tattooed into your fists.

Fuck it.

lie and sit in solemn lines,
drinking gin and dropping limes,
wasting beats of this heart of mine
until the morning comes around

[ cade riene attacks demo deer #1 ; (cross) bow ]

|TFiOqchbow

[ arrow in stomach -- 6.5 damage ]

bow

[heather - d2 [mylee]]

MAISIE LENNOX

I pass spare time by watching for the first glimpse of stars in night sky.

But here there is nothing but blinding daylight and blistering cold, and they both seem to be punishing me for daring to look the world beyond in the eye. I cannot live this life as a blind man, for my god would fall from the sky and settle at my feet.

How do I worship one how stands on the same level as myself?

Until the light above me dims, I resolve to keep my eyes trained to the ground in order to realize the nuances I have missed in eighteen years of staring at the stars. The world here is drawn on similarities, but the color scheme differs greatly and causes my eyes to question the confidence they once had in this world.

I find myself about to voice these uncertainties aloud when it comes to mind that this is inappropriate conversation for the present. We had lost an ally, according to what Caine had told me, and it seemed that we were now obligated to pass the following hours in remembrance and reverence.

I knew nothing of him, and for this reason I saw no reason to react in any manner. Regardless, even knowing him would not have been cause for grief. Death is simply the passage from earth to stars to being— a way in which I strive to exist.

But I am not sure what it is that separates this ideal from the now— and perhaps that is the most petrifying part. If I am already in the state of existence for which I long, well, what more is there for me to search for in this life? If I am but earthly traveler composed of stardust waiting to return home, why do I not speed the pace of my journey?

Comfort in the eye of solitude is a danger no man can resist.

It is for this reason that I have refused to travel alone, though I am still not sure of the company Cade and Caine bring. Cade and I are related by casual circumstance— a place of birth does not truly tie two people at the heart, that is for sure. And Caine. Caine taught me how to whistle that night spent in open wind. He taught musicality to a heart that only understood the property of foundational rhythm. I do not know how much value this adds to the self, and I do not know whether or not I am now indebted to him in some way.

“We’ll be safe in here, I reckon.”

I hold my tongue against questioning the validity of his better judgment and simply nod in agreement, for there is no space in my heart left to be filled with angst against the soul.

We sit in solitude for a moment, and neither Cade nor I find anything worth saying that would do anything other than linger in the air like a bad taste on the tongue.

I am about to apologize— for what I do not know— when Caine rises to his feet and alerts us to the presence of the non-human.

He does not give us a space in which to speak ourselves into existence before striking out with spear and catching the first animal deep across the stomach. I do not see such power in my own limbs, and I imagine myself in the place of wounded animal, all blood guts and spilling.

I choke down sob and watch as Cade draws back bowstring and hurtles himself and arrow toward a similar result. The stream widens and flows more rapidly as the arrow catches just near the initial wound— the drought is coming, my brothers.

My hand is light on the weapon in my hand, and I can feel my ribs attempting to shiver out of my chest. I want to dissolve into earthly matter here, now.

It is not a Tuesday, and I do not know what to do.

BY CHELSEY

[maisie lennox attacks demo deer two; spiked blunt]
rPiZzwywspiked blunt
[miss -- 0.0]

[accuracy; day one point five]
spiked blunt
[two broken ribs -- 7.5]

spiked blunt�spiked blunt

[sbeeg]

~Demo Deer Squad~

Two deer step out from the shadows of the trees, their enormous bodies tense. Their heads are adorned with giant sharp antlers. They are gargantuan, majestic creatures. The kind you want to adore but from a distance.

And then a third deer stumbles out, a branch stuck in its antlers. It shakes its head furiously, trying to dislodge it, but to no avail. He looks to the tributes, his tongue hanging half way out of his mouth.

The other deer blow out their noses in almost a sigh.

Dasher (1)
[Attacks 10M Caine Winchester w/ spear antlers]
Ho1hMsZ_spear
[Deep Gash on Left Forearm -- 8.0 damage]

Dancer (2)
[Attacks 3m Cade Riene w/ spear antlers]
spear
[Miss -- 0.0 damage]

Ted (3)

[Stumbles, and then Attacks 3f Maisie Lennox w/ spear antlers]
spear
[Stabbed in Thigh -- 8.5 damage]

spear�spear�spear

[Dana Lheureux D9F [Tom]]

Cigarette ash like wildfire

Burning holes in the night time
Open scars cut like barbed wire
White lies flying high like a ceasefire

Crimson glimmers in the whiteness that blinds.

A marking of pain upon the purest of white that he can see, fingers growing cold with the metal of the weapon in his hand. Not the first time since he's seen the crimson fall to the ground, memories of cattle, injured or sent for meat being cut open. Pa's hand on his shoulder as he cringed at the sound of metal cutting into flesh. Tolerable at a young age, until he saw the metal cut into people in bloodbath. The flashy weapon in his hand carries the blood of the creature and people in Bloodbath who didn't deserve wounds in the cold environment they had become trapped in. Blood of crimson that comes to the ground ruining the pure white ground.

The creature bleeds where his weapon had once been, a spot that was easier to cut through than the rest of it. Grey skin covering it's body with antlers that rise above them, mixing with the trees that point towards the unknown. Majestic and dangerous creatures that no ordinary person would see unless they were thrown in the middle of a bloody game where only death wins. After his own weapon cuts into the majestic creature with crimson touching his blade, an arrow flies past him. Engulfing into the stomach of the same creature that he had just torn open, more crimson falls as his head hurts. The sounds of hooves rising in his mind as a small thump hits across his head from an unknown reason. Lack of water in the moment is his guess, but he watches them carefully.

Cade's gotten a good hit on the stomach just from a glance, he could see that. No reason to let his guard down just yet, as he holds his weapon in his hand, preparing himself mentally for the strike he would have to do. Life. Everyone wanted to keep their life, just like him, but even life has to struggle under death to survive. Violets moving towards the creatures with worry in their eyes. Hearts beating to the tune of danger, a dance that none of them have ever danced before. Maisie's weapon hits another creature with a sound of cracking in the chest. Pain had to be coming into the creatures that had just been hit.

Drip. Drip. Drip. Crimson mixing with white to turn into a pink, flowers that Ma had just put out wilting by now with the lack of a green thumb that he had. Always trying to make her feel like gardening was her own thing. Jed's half of the room would be a mess by now, littered with small things that he starts and never finishes. Pa's paper would be waiting on the porch for him in the morning, instead of on the counter where it always was. They were there watching him with a bloody weapon as it drips into the snow with a new feeling in his stomach. There's guilt spinning it's twisted head at him as the one majestic creature charges, antlers pointed.

Crimson falls from the blue stones on his left arm, coating it in a deep red. Pain. The first feeling that didn't feel like it was being shunned behind a mask of strength. The feeling moves through his skin with a burning fire as it drips to the ground. Hand instinctively moving to it as he backs away from the creature, catching his bearings. Maisie's leg looks wounded, but Cade's fine from what he can see. JJ's dead. Maisie and Cade from District Three would not follow. Not on his watch, not when his heart keeps telling him that he doesn't want to be alone in the snowy landscape that shrouds the sky in a gray.

A warmth fills his chest as he thinks of the people who he met before the arena. Exar with career blood in his veins, as they watched the seventy fifth with careful eyes. Bella's who's kindness was a thorn in her side, but he could see her potential. Then there was Raven, who comes upon his mind as the pain in his arm rises like steam through his veins. A warmth still resides in his chest as he thinks of the forest male who lived in a place that Caine only dreamed of as a kid. Hands tingling with a sensation of wishing that the male was there with him for just a moment. The guilt would vanish within moments and he'd strike the majestic creatures with no worries, but life had other plans.

The dark blue of the night sky moves with a glittering movement as he raises the glittering weapon up. A shooting star in his form as he comes crashing forward ignoring the slight burn of pain in his arm. The outlaw's voice rings in his head once again from an age long ago. You won't shoot. The hooves sound louder and louder in his ears as time feels like it slows down, unlike his heart. Dark blue glittering like the stars with fire in his veins and a nine attached to his name, everything slows around him as he can feel himself losing care.

The hum of the air ringing in his ears as a glance to Cade and Maisie is all he gives. Glittering with crimson and metal, he moves with a strike that he hopes will land with the determination in his chest. JJ was dead, but they were still alive. They were still fighting for another day of sunlight that could shine through. A glittering night sky upon his skin as he strikes down trying to create light. A better place for the rest of them to be in a place where good doesn't reside in.

The glittering comes down with a strike that shatters the humming in his ear.

A breath coming from his throat as he aims for the star to fall.

Dropping flags on the shoreline
This is as far as I can feel right
'Cause what you don't know
Can haunt you

(Caine Winchester attacks Demo Deer #1 with ski pole [spear])
5Z0sztdMspear
(stabbed in chest 9.5 + 1 from mutt tamer)

spear

[calla]

down and out, and out of luck,
we're spinning but the needle's stuck,
let's go have some fun before
they put us in the ground

The sound of an impact, violence on the air and it's tangible. Hollow noises, echoing like crystal glasses cracking on the floor; broken branches reflecting broken bones.

Bruised heart,
violet sky.

Living in black and white, you've never seen colour quite like this before.

Like stained glass windows, casting a kaleidoscope of holy light on the poison crawling up your throat. A spotlight stuck on all of the worst parts of you, there's beauty in destruction. A monochrome picture of decay; you catch a colour wheel spinning over the trees, warm to cool like a battle of ice and fire.

And then there's a retaliation of red, a sound that burns, and the blow you were braced for never comes. Violence hangs on the air so stark you can barely tell if it comes from ally or mutt.

But whatever the hell these things are,
you've always been more of a cat person.

An exhalation; scratches healed over and cat hair swept away, this isn't home. This is something colder, like staying on the rooftops for so long that the wind bites into your face and draws pink venom. Sunrise colours spilling into your skin and smoke curling around your ears, when your feet were on that ledge you felt like a god.

Like Leviathan; sinful chaos.
A force of destruction,
but only to yourself.

Because Caine attacks with a force that terrifies you, a resurgence of phantom pain and you just keep moving, hanging back by a heartbeat and trying to breathe. Even Maisie moves in close, a whirlwind of blue and red ( violet ). And you only just exist.

Rose petals float down to coat the snow and there's a memory buried beneath them. Like an old radio, all tin-sounding, fuzzy and crackling like there are honeybees hidden inside. You try to tune into a familiar frequency of sunset streaks and paint splatters.

But no blood of yours spilt,
and you still don't know how you're doing this.

( Father,
do you still recognize your son? )

You remember graffiti work murals, some telltale disaster written in a language you couldn't understand. You couldn't read the warnings. Holding a mirror late at night, edge against a collarbone. There's the same disaster reflected in your eyes, drowned in starlight and sweet shots of kerosene. Some kind of fucked up poetry on ripped paper, tucked away with the bills in your waistband and the watch in your shoe.

Poison spills into your palm.
You pass out, wake up, and the cycle repeats.

How did you ever fall apart so
easily.

Ripred, you don't want to die.

Not anymore.

lie and sit in solemn lines,
drinking gin and dropping limes,
wasting beats of this heart of mine
until the morning comes around

[ cade riene attacks demo deer #1 ; (cross) bow ]

DwX8|0oXbow

[ arrow in hand -- 6.0 damage ]

bow

[heather - d2 [mylee]]

MAISIE LENNOX

My body is a hurricane that loses power before reaching land. As soon as I have begun, the storm has already passed and the moment is gone. The moment was never here, if I am to think about it clearly.

First, my body took hold of itself and weapon in hand rose forward to an occasion hurtling towards it. My body did not know fear until it had already settled into the bones and sent a deep-seated shiver into the soul. My body does not know how to separate itself from soul in the moments when a lack of dualism is most needed.

In the passing time of a second my hand thrust forward, successfully sinking point and spike into the flesh of pristine being. I have distorted the realm of creation and whatever god is out there is not pleased with the decisions this fate of mine has led me to. Lightning is striking in my belly and making sure that I will never eat again.

I will never be hungry again.

This is but another consequence of realizing that you, and your body, are in the process of dying.

Third, I step back and watch blood pour from open wound. The cold cracks my fingers and makes visible the blood that is seeping beneath them. The wind whispers in my ear, “You had better rid yourself of that now, or it will stay there forever. You will be everlastingly red. A girl made of others’ blood and burning anger.”

I start to sob, and I scratch frantically at my skin in an attempt to rid myself of anything that is not wholly of my own.

Fourth, I am still trying to rid myself of my body when the third deer strikes out at me, at what I myself am trying to disappear from— still my heart turns over at the thought of otherness taking its stand against me. Offense is weaving itself into the open places of my body and I am becoming a creature of that whispering wind, all anger and otherness.

All anger and otherness I am as I stumble backward away from the beast. My thigh is gushing and the only way to find some semblance of closure is to hold my hand pressed tightly to the wound. This invites more red under my fingernails and I sob as I fall into the cyclic nature of the presence I have so long feared.

I want to be screaming in agony; I want to find myself saturated in the fear of death or the afterlife or— goddamn, anything.

I want to be afraid of something outside of myself.

Instead I stand dumbly in complacency while Caine and Cade takes strikes against the first animal once more. It is almost dead— you can see it in the eyes.

My eyes are not in this creatures’ and for this I cannot bring myself to turn my weapon on him in tandem with the other two. Instead, I turn my eyes to Cade and Caine and back again until the need for decisiveness is lost among the nausea of indecision.

There is red under my fingernails and the stain will not come out.

BY CHELSEY

[maisie lennox attacks demo deer two; spiked blunt]
9OT01N|Yspiked blunt
[broken left shin -- 7.0]

spiked blunt

[sbeeg]

Demo Deer Squad

Dasher
[Attacks Caine Winchester 10m]
8eBXENTRspear
[Shallow Cut on Right Thigh -- 3.5 damage]

Dancer
[Attacks Cade Reine 3m]
spear
[Deep Gash on Right Bicep -- 8.0 damage]

Ted
[Attacks Maisie Lennox 3f]
spear
[Deep Gash on Left Thigh -- 8.0 damage]

spear�spear�spear

[Dana Lheureux D9F [Tom]]

Cigarette ash like wildfire

Burning holes in the night time
Open scars cut like barbed wire
White lies flying high like a ceasefire

This is a Filler for now. Caine telling them to leave now because mutts. They are majestic though.

Dropping flags on the shoreline
This is as far as I can feel right
'Cause what you don't know
Can haunt you

(Caine Winchester flees this fight
receives sponsorship
does F/a on self for -3
collects a bundle of wood and lights it with the flint
fills his jug with snow [not covered in blood]
purifies it over the fire and lets his allies do the same
collects a bundle of fire wood to carry himself
if I missed anything it'll be in maintenance)

[calla]

down and out, and out of luck,
we're spinning but the needle's stuck,
let's go have some fun before
they put us in the ground

filler until saturday while they skedaddle. following caine and probably thinking about something emo.

lie and sit in solemn lines,
drinking gin and dropping limes,
wasting beats of this heart of mine
until the morning comes around

[ cade riene flees from the fight ]

actions to come in maint

[heather - d2 [mylee]]

MAISIE LENNOX

Filler until school isn't absolutely fucking me in the ass.

BY CHELSEY

[maisie lennox flees]
[more actions to come in maintenance]