Young Blood :: [Denali + Bette]

[L△LIA]

DENALI LYONS y o u n g b l o o d heaven need a sinner you can't raise hell with a saint It doesn’t feel the same. The practice wall is too accommodating, welcoming every knife I throw with soft chalky flesh and open arms, each brilliantly sharpened blade sinking in much too deeply because this room lacks the ancient, protective skeleton of my house in Five. So few ricochet and skitter back toward my feet and my mediocre skill is not to be praised for it. I can’t tell if I’m cheating or being cheated. The dull thud of each hit lacks the familiar echo that bounced around Zion’s bedroom and the way the sound immediately disappears here is so much less satisfying, despite technically being the optimal setup. A sigh escapes my lips as I let the blade in my hand clatter to the ground instead of flinging it outward like the others. For months now throwing kitchen knives has been a cathartic release of my frustrations, but here each toss seems to tighten the muscles between my shoulders. I’ve emptied every knife I could get my hands on into a five gallon bucket nabbed from another station — my own greedy hoard, like I am a fire-breathing dragon guarding her treasure — half of them already hurled at the painted targets with varying degrees of success. A few hit exactly where they were supposed to, sunk into fake eye sockets or the groins of the particularly unlucky. These are boring. It’s the rest of the knives, scattered in every direction and ten feet above the top of any given teenager’s head, that explain the difference between me and the career kids from the upper Districts. They might point and laugh over how badly I missed, but they’d be wrong. I didn’t miss shit. I was just trying to aim for something bigger.

[Raise Hell by Dorothy]

[shrimp]

When she was fourteen the running began, first with the crumble of a rooftop and now - with the shattered future that may lie ahead. It's always helped ground her, stabilize her footing as she commits to leaping over the low wall leading to the obstacle course.

She waves through the structures with a finesse - her first few runs were shaky, and on the first day she smacked her kneecap hard enough to leave a bruise - today it's elegant. She shifts her weight, a flip landing her onto the ground with a contrasting thump. Softer. Next time.

And just like that, she's done. It's a pity that it isn't long enough - the gymnastics equipment is set up in the far corner, an art form so pristine that it must have no place here, where all you need is your feet and enough faith to push through. She breathes, takes a sip of water, and starts jogging again, looking for a better vantage point.

There, a precipice - up on the rafters with a stairwell to boot. So she strides then sprints as a Lyon creates her pathway, the last remnants of a knife slamming into the wall before she jumps off of a well-placed trampoline, landing quickly on the hilt. She leaps off as her weight compensates, the knife ripping back out of the wall and dropping to the ground as she soars towards the next. And the next, and the next. Grabbing the ledge with two hands, she pulls herself upwards - slow but steady, arm muscles straining. After another five seconds, Bette finally leverages enough weight to hoist her elbow on top, then two then half a body then her whole frame, lounging.

Everything else in her life has always counted on someone else. Here, it's all her.

Well, not quite. She looks down at the Lyon, and gives her a tiny wave. "Hey."

[L△LIA]

young blood run like a river young blood never get chained The scream that bursts through the air has some sharp edges, a couple that grate rough and brutal, and more than a few that have been worn smooth from over-use. It is born from the surprise and panic of another person running into the Lyons girl’s path of destruction and it tells an honest truth about who Denali is as a person. Dozens of knives are peppered across the practice walls, but none of them were thrown with intent to kill. So far this little hobby has only been used to heal. Every wound in the wall puts a stitch in her heart and while they burst apart from time to time, she has yet to throw a blade with ill intent. She knows that day is coming, but it wasn’t supposed to be today. Knives clatter to the ground as the girl from One sprints up the freaking wall, utilizing the hilts as footholds. Denali’s eyes go as wide as the world itself and the scream transforms into the wild laughter of disbelief and onward into a whooping cheer. “Hell yes! That was awesome! You’re awesome!” With a stomp for emphasis she whirls in a circle, surging with secondhand adrenaline and pumping a fist in the air. “I didn’t know somebody could do that.” Her face scrunches up every which way, still try to catch up and process what just happened, but she’s grinning with obvious how amazing was that?! awe. Having pulled herself up onto the top of the wall dividing this training area from the next, Bette gives a simple “hey” and a casual wave. Denali sucks her lips between her teeth and tries to hold a flash of retroactive embarrassment in because her outburst was messy and this girl is way too cool for her. She wants to know all of her secrets. She wants to make friends even though she has never known how to make friends with anyone except her siblings who are required to hang out with her and that does not count. She wants to jump up and down, clapping and begging for an encore. She wants to run forward and try to copy what she just saw even if it means she falls right on her face because who even knows what’s possible? Apparently lots of stuff. She realizes exactly how stupid of a face she’s making with her lips sucked in and her eyes bugging out and her cheeks twitching with a million questions as the coolest girl in the world looks down on her. “Oh, hey up there.” She waves back and the reply feels dumb, but what else can she say? No, really, what else can she say? “That was a neat trick.” Ripred. Neat? Who is she - Zion? “I bet you could reach the rafters from there.” One of the two girls scaled a wall with nothing but her own momentum and suddenly the other feels like she could just throw herself off a cliff...