build up a new us of flowers and blood [wadjet + bb + wnn]

[fireflyz]

---

Dominic's father had once taught him the importance of being proactive, once in this case meaning he had been fed the same line for years with his cereal. You always had to strike first, be first, make the neurons inside your head fire faster than the guy's next to you even though it wasn't humanly possible, because personal limitations didn't matter when you had goals to reach.

But here, it was like all he could do was go with the motions, a pile of debris slowly dissipating into the choppy waves. Every day he was reacting to an attack, trying to keep his friends out of harm's way, trying to suppress the constant fear that had embedded itself into his body. Even before the Games, Dominic was merely reacting to what his father wanted, what his teachers said, what everyone around him needed, simply because that was what he had always done.

Now, Dominic was watching his boy's life ripple away, and once again he was standing helpless on the shore as part of him disappeared. Pisces was physically alive, he knew it - but he was giving up.

"No," he said numbly. "Don't - don't say that."

Say something. Talk him off the ledge. Don't let him fall any further.

He parted his lips, but no words came. Fortunately, Jade filled in the blanks, as confident as ever. "We lived yesterday, didn't we? We'll live again." Dominic wondered how she did it. They were playing the same game - they had to be, all Careers were - but she was clearly closer to victory than he was.

"If you're going to die anyway, stop trying to kill me," the guy from Seven exclaimed, and Dominic was seized by indignation. He couldn't speak. He had no witty retorts. He simply tensed his arm and swiped at Seven's blonde friend once more.

After all, every action had an equal and opposite reaction.

[dominic attacks terra w/ geode morning star]
SDHAbYkSZhspiked blunt
14022 - lol

---

table by puppy

spiked blunt

[WT]

list filler because my brain is Not With It tonight:

• Uraeus finally clocks Zenia's herd of mini Night Vipers and is like, ah, little cousins!
• ... what are the little cousins doing here? this isn't even a good place for Uraeus to be, she's a million times their size and definitely going to die here anyway. this is Danger. the little cousins should not be here.
• she zips down and tries to kind of gently bat at them with some of her wings to usher them out of harm's way but they're clearly intent on watching one of the humans. who has a? dead snake? on her head? what the fuck
  
• what do these humans have against snakes and what did that one in particular do to these little ones to make them feel like they can't leave her here
• two of the other humans are coming at her but she's here on a vengeance mission and she just found another snake to avenge, and maybe even a few she can protect before it's too late
• hiss hiss bite

Uraeus [Wadjet] attacks D3F Zenia Siella
STAz7QkUAlknife
[Miss - 0.0]

knife

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

Their targeting JJ is really starting to fucking piss me off.

All over again, it's not an emotion I know how to process, not something that I am certain I will ever be able to understand. I've lived my entire life for myself, killed my stepfather when he tried to hit me and killed any positive memory I had left of my mother when she had the audacity to be angry with me about it. Then Kingpin taught me over and over and over again; family is a weakness. He taught me that he was the only person in the world that I needed.

Unlearned that, teaching myself that I only needed myself—I think I'm even unlearning that.

Because the Wadjet manages to grip its teeth into Will and it literally set fire to my bones. I am watching these other kids break JJ's bones and instead of wanting to fight for the sake of the fight, I want to rip out their throats because they've touched my—friend?

What are you to each other when you would spill your blood for them? When you sleep beside them and know what they sound like when they're having a nightmare?

Surely that's—something.

Maybe like family.

Maybe even better.

But I don't have time to dwell because then the boy who swung at me earlier, the one who missed, actually has the audacity to swing at me again. I dart out of the way, sidestep away from the snake, and have to actually try and tamp down on my grin when the feathered snake takes the opportunity to try and attack Zenia. The thorns buried in my skin are painful, and I can feel that tell-tale trace of poison slowly seeping into my blood, making me think that the snake's fangs may very well hold something entirely more dangerous than their sharpness. "What the fuck are you doing," I laugh manically at the boy who'd swung at me again and missed again.

But I don't have time to linger on the fact that this boy is an idiot who doesn't know how to wield a weapon, don't have time to linger on the fact that he's probably going to keep swinging his weapon right towards me and he and his chaotic energy might eventually land a blow.

This snake needs killing.

✩  terra attacks wadjet, misericorde  ✩

T6x|_TUpT7knife

[ 2080 - sc left bicep - 3.5 ]

knife

[aya]

The sky snake circles past him, hissing, missing.

"If you're going to kill me, you damn well better get it over with soon, because I'm done dancing."

If he does, will it stick? Or will this boy be back in another day or two with a graveyard stare and a vengeance? "Then quit dancing," Will instructs, forcefully this time, "and hold still."

Breathing deep, the Johnwayne grinds his teeth together as if that will steady the venom tremors in his hands when he draws another knife. He clenches them tighter when he hears the dull crack of JJ's bones splitting under the weight of their spiked maces, but can't muster sympathy beyond the knotting of his stomach.

What's he supposed to do, cry out in second-hand agony? Beg them to turn their weapons on a real threat like Will? Even now that the initial surge of poison has receded into a dull tide in the background, he's faltering — look at the pathetic aim of his last knife — and maybe he's in better shape than JJ Wolfram, but as much as Will enjoys his company he isn't about to lay down his life for the other boy.

Selfishness is, was, and has always been a defense mechanism for the boy who never knew anything he didn't take for himself. It's kept him alive this long.

[attacks pisces, throwing knives]

95NuLXkraWthrowing knife

[ 9002 -- Knife in Cheek -- 7.0 damage + 1 target practice ]

throwing knife

[pup]

---

With each attack, I can see that Pisces grows weaker. He can too. His voice stings my soul as he tells my murderers to finish him faster.

I'm nearly certain at this point that if Pisces dies now, he'll simply be sent to the next circle of hell the gamemakers devised for their pleasure. But that doesn't stop the fear from wrapping around my throat as they tell him to hold still, to quit dancing.

If the devil wanted me to kill anyone, why would he want these tributes dead. They were clearly his design.

Looking up from my terror, I see the ginormous snake. It's eyes are locked onto my posse while they still stare me down. Their unblinking gaze sends shivers up my spine as I sense death quickly approaching from nearby. Why can't snakes just evolve a pair of fucking eyelids.

The creature, my creature, the loyal subject to the queen of snake bends it's head down to my other disciples, and they swiftly scatter before regrouping again. Then it looks back at me, and lunges.

For a second, I'm afraid, but then I remember how I got where I am now. I've killed a large snake before, and now they worship me. Flinching away, it's attack misses me, and I know it's because it worships me just like the rest of them. Locking eyes with it for a second, I match it's unblinking stare, before I turn away.

This monster won't harm me.

It'll hurt who I want it to hurt.

"You two losers need to shut the Helle up," I say in the direction of the two boys, the two murders who continue to berate Pisces, my tongue catching in my mouth as I emphasize her name. Staring them down, my eyes unblinking, just like that as the snake lashing out at us. If I can only catch them off guard, find a way to sink my weapon into unprotected skin.

"You couldn't even murder a fly, remember? You tried with me."

It should make me feel better. Pisces dying at someone else's hands, that is. It should make me feel freer, less afraid of what I'll need to do to make the best of my second chance. I won't freeze up like I did yesterday when I fight Pisces anymore, because I won't need to be the one to strike him down. But the fear strangling my brain like an oversized snake, sinking it's venom into my mind, tells me that I need to fight to make sure that he doesn't die. I can't let that happen. No one else should die.

"I mean, who the hell can't even stop someone from rising from the dead. Is it really that hard?"

Grabbing the stick with the bright rock stolen from Cyro's corpse, I swing at my enemies. They won't be killing anyone again, I won't let them.

"But don't worry, I'll make sure you actually stay dead."

[attacks jj, spiked blunt]
_l3rEyhVkVspiked blunt
[GASH/BRUISED LEFT FEMUR, +4.0 dmg]

---

spiked blunt

[kap]

---

cw: vomit

Jade insists that we'll live again, and I don't have the heart to tell her that, even if she lives, I probably won't. Dom's with her, telling me not to talk like that. The boy I'd been targeting, however, tells me that if I'm going to die anyway, I should stop trying to kill him, but why would I listen to him? I volunteered to be here, so I'm in charge of what I do. I may not be entirely in charge of what happens to me, but I can control what I do to others, and if this boy is trying to kill me, I'm trying to kill him, too.

I wobble on my feet, still most certainly intoxicated. As I stumble, the boy's attack misses me narrowly and I immediately feel my stomach churning. I pause for a second before projectile vomiting at his feet. If he didn't get any of that on him, he's lucky. I suppose drinking half a bottle of mead last night and half a bottle this morning wasn't the wisest thing to do, especially when I'd never had a sip of alcohol before then. Oh well, it was too late to turn back now.

As the giant serpentine mutt swoops down in Zenia's direction, I'm grateful to see that its attack misses her. I don't want the others getting hurt. If any of us is going to die here, I couldn't stand to let it be any of them.

The girl on their side, still tangling with the mutt, asks Dominic what the hell he's doing as he once again fails to connect his weapon with her.

I'm told to hold still. I'm told to quit dancing. I may have been one back home to do what I was told to do, but not here. Here, I had freedom. Here, I had a choice. Here, I made my own decisions and painted my own scenes. This scene just happened to have a bit more blood in it than I initially planned.

I whisper to myself, ignoring all their words. They don't won't influence what I have to say here. These words are my own.

"This is the final stroke of your masterpiece, Pisces."

I am an artist and this is my masterpiece.

---

[Pisces attacks JJ with Geode Morning Star (Spiked Blunt)]
mYzHmhDK61spiked blunt
[14126 -- DEEP GASH ON LEFT FOREARM -- 8.0 damage]

spiked blunt

[D1f Jade Morin - Alyssaimagine]

---

really sleepy, so filler, yes?

- jade does not like people attacking pisces
- glares at each of his attackers
- notices the mutt interacts with zenia's mini mutts
- notices mutt 'misses' zenia. glares at zenia.
- inner thoughts about all the 'evidence' pointing to zenia being an obvious mutt.
- attacks

---

(Jade attacks Uraeus [Wadjet] with sword)
OKgxwccuJosword
(1165 -- Shallow Cut on Chest -- 4.0 damage)

Table made by Puppy

sword

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

He was so desensitized and disoriented in that moment that the pain didn't register in the way that it was supposed to. Zenia caught him in the leg- a dull roar of energy and a hollow thud, and he found himself looking down at the place where she'd hit him fully not knowing what to expect. Maybe she took it off, he thought, maybe I will bleed out right here, right now, and I won't have to hurt anymore.

(I won't be the victim anymore.)

Those words felt like such a lie now. He'd gotten one lucky shot on one unsuspecting idiot who stumbled into the wrong campsite. When it was this, though, and his enemies were right there in front of him and ready to fight back, he was nothing. He was a mournful look from Will and a gasp of audible horror from Terra.

The boy attacking him came to a sudden and urgent stop before vomiting at JJ's feet. He wondered if it was because he looked as bad as he felt. Regardless, he only watched, afraid of speaking. Afraid of moving. Afraid. God, he really was weak, wasn't he? The thought that, perhaps, he'd been wrong in assuming the Capitol was against him crossed his mind and tears welled up in his eyes. Because it didn't matter now: it was too late. He'd drawn a line in the sand and a target on his back and there was no fixing that. The Capitol wanted his corpse in a casket for sure now, but what if that hadn't always been the case?

He kept waiting for one last pump of blood to pour from his wounds and finally end his suffering, but death didn't come for him. Not yet, anyway. 

"This is the final stroke of your masterpiece, Pisces," the boy said. JJ raised his weapon into the air.

Curtain call, he thought.

[ jj attacks pisces, morning star ]
dOHVThBgi_spiked blunt
[ 14099 -- GASH/BRUISED LEFT COLLAR BONE -- 3.0 damage ]

spiked blunt

[fireflyz]

---

He missed his mark again, and the girl looked at him like he was no more than a kid with a toy weapon. (Well, at least the first half was true.)

"What the fuck are you doing?" she sneered, and Dominic could feel the anxiety clawing at his chest, the same feeling he had when he was made to go head to head with one of his more prowessed peers. He was a puffer fish whose spines had deflated, and everyone was seeing through the act.

Dominic pointed his mace at the girl, trembling. "What am I doing?" he stammered. "Wha- what the fuck are you doing?"

Shit. He was fumbling. He was fumbling so fucking bad. The clearing and all its inhabitants began to spin. The serpent descended to strike again and everything smelled of bile all of a sudden, what was that about, and nothing felt real anymore.

He was above ground - he knew it, he could feel the earth beneath his feet - but his ears were full of water. Every sound became a nondescript murmur that tied itself in knots inside of Dominic's head. He couldn't hear. Couldn't see. Couldn't think.

But then came a cracking noise, and Dominic was running to catch Pisces as he fell once again, this time collapsing to his knees under the weight. Had the bomb gone off again? He lowered his head, expecting fire and metal to rain down upon them, but there was only quiet. Pisces was still, and only then did Dominic realize that the boy's mouth and chin were damp.

"I guess you were the one puking last night, too?" Dominic whispered. He laughed softly, a familiar burn spreading in his eyes. "That's gross, P."

He placed his hands on both sides of Pisces' head, fingers absently tracing the spot where an ear used to be and where a tiny thorn-shaped cut now lived. "Come on, you're fine."

He moved his hands to Pisces' shoulders, gently nudging them. "Pisces. You're fine." Dominic's breathing was growing ragged, and he tapped the boy's cheek with a free hand. "Come on. We have to fight."

Get up, damn it! His hand collided with skin again and again, but as the denial began to evaporate so did his resolve. Dominic's entire body quivered as he rose to his feet, gripping his mace with both hands. He glowered at the boy that had struck Pisces down, a glossy film over his eyes probably not dissimilar to the layer spilling from Dominic's own. He could kill him. He should. But the boy's panicked words did not ring any louder than his friend's smug cackling.

Dominic didn't bother to wipe the tears from his face. Let them see him cry; he couldn't feel any smaller than he already did.

He lunged at the girl with an anguished yell.

[dominic attacks terra w geode morning star]
4LxtOzHBd|spiked blunt
14044 - broken right foot - 6.5 + 1

---

table by puppy

spiked blunt

[WT]

it's Thursday night gotta go fast :sanic:

• misses Zenia and locks eyes with her; hiss hiss again, minus bite, because—
• —those other two humans don't care that she's fixated on Zenia and are still coming after her
• trailing a lot of blood now, but manages to do a sort of aerial barrel roll away from Terra's knife so it only slashes across one of her wings instead of ripping apart several
• recovers herself and tries to dive at Zenia again, but Jade is in the way
• swerves but can't entirely avoid the sword; gets sliced across chest
• supposes she has to get this one out of the way before she can get snake killer
• hang on little cousins she's working on this as fast as she can

Uraeus [Wadjet] attacks D1F Jade Morin
v1psalShagknife
[Shallow Cut on Right Forearm - 3.5]

knife

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

The other boy with the weapon like JJ's—he's there one second, gouging one of his spikes into JJ's arm, and it sets my bones on absolute fire. But then, once again, it is JJ coming to his own resuce, swinging his morning star right back at the boy's chest and at first I think surely that it can't be enough, that the boy will keep breathing, keep fighting, keeping trying to kill my—friend.

I try and dive towards JJ, not knowing what I'm going to do, not knowing how I'm going to help him, but just knowing that I had to be by him, that maybe he was going to need me. That maybe he was going to want me to be there.

But the other boy dies, and the one still kicking takes advantage, and I don't have time to change my course before my enemy's weapon is bearing right down towards my foot.

"Would you back the fuck off!" I literally shout at the boy who attacked me. The pain is fucking astronomical, and I can feel the tremors of it ricocheting through the rest of my leg, up my shin and through my knee and deep into my hip and—yeah. That fucking hurts. "What the fuck is wrong with you!"

The mutt is really right fucking there.

I feel anger and poison rearing its ugly head all he way down my spine and I try to dive towards him, want to do nothing more than bury my knife into his eye until I feel his brain die around it but—yep. My foot is definitely broken, and my knife swings towards the snake and its crumbling body instead.

✩  terra attacks wadjet, misericorde  ✩

_l5tkjOnO0knife

[ 2143 - stabbed in back - 9.0 ]

knife

[aya]

"Oh now you can land a hit, huh?" he complains, rolling his eyes at JJ. "Killthief." It doesn't occur to him, really, that kill-stealing is most likely not a concept that exists outside of places like District Two. If JJ's thousand-yard stare the previous evening was anything to go by, kids from Seven don't pride themselves on being murderers the way that Will and his classmates might. Stashing his knife again, he wonders idly if he'd be a better person if he'd grown up somewhere like that. Maybe he'd be more likable if he'd grown up learning how to split shingles instead of how to split skulls. Maybe he'd be the same shitty person with no backstory to blame it on.

"Still counts as mine," Will grumbles, as though he's taking credit for a group presentation or a successfully captured flag and not for ending someone's life. Probably. With their luck, this boy's heart will restart and with his vengeance worn on his sleeve he'll march after them shoulder-to-shoulder with the girl Helle killed that first day.

Limbs snap, but despite a new limp, Terra drives her knives into the flying serpent's back. It falls, also dead. Probably.

Even beat to hell, his allies are doing just fine without him. He snorts, drawing his knife again. Even with the venom in his veins, Will is in top shape here. It makes sense to keep stoking the fight, doesn't it? Let the careers on the other side wear themselves out? Leave JJ to get finished off? Let Terra get busted up so he can claim plausible deniability when someone else kills her later? Their lives aren't his responsibility, and unless he's holding the knife, their deaths won't be either. The Hunger Games would always be zero-sum. The only wrong choices here are the ones that prioritize someone else's survival above his own.

"Nice hit." He tucks the knife back into his cloak, and offers Terra his shoulder to lean on. "C'mon," he mumbles. All of the regret that should've been reserved for the life he just ended spills out with a heavy sigh, fully cognizant of the mistake he's making and then going ahead and making it anyway.

[ will flees, assisting terra ]

[pup]

---

His weapon falls through the air, and alongside it, so does Pisces.

His body falls limp as I see my ally die. A canon fires and I hear the angry career boy mutter "Kill thief" to the one who struck Pisces down. They're monsters. How could Meredith and this boy be from the same district and yet be so different.

One's a dancer.

One's a murderer.

Both are lunatics.

I grab my weapon and am about to swing again before I see the boy from two retreating, making his way away with the girl from six who had just finished off the giant snake. Lowering my weapon, I turn my gaze back to the boy I had been attacking before.

He was the one who took my ear that first day.

Thankfully, the gamemakers returned it to me so I'll be able to hear his cries of pain when we next see each other.

My once white gown, my contrast to set myself apart from the others, was now soaked in sweat and blood, leaving it an angry red. I'll make sure that before I die more blood will be spilled on this dress, that's my second chance.

Glancing back over to my loyal subject lying dead on the ground, then to Pisces, then to mine and now Pisces' murderer, I glare at him. My eyes lock onto his, a snake watching her prey, unblinking, preparing for the time to strike.

"Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice, shame on me." I spit out at him as his allies flee, my words my venom, my teeth clenched tight against each other. He took my ear once, just so that Helle could finish the job. He's killed Pisces now, or at least took one of Pisces' lives away from him.

"I'll finish you off later," I continue before turning away from him. He'll die soon enough, but for now, one half-life had been taken from Pisces.

I'm nearly certain that he'll be reborn, but there's been enough death for one day.

And so, turning away from Pisces' body, I begin to walk away from this death.

[zenia skedaddles]
[stuff in maint]

---

[D1f Jade Morin - Alyssaimagine]

---

The knife appeared to fly in slow motion. Her eyes watched as it landed in Pisces, and she screamed as the boy slumped to the ground. The world seemed to be spinning and she could hear the canon shot in the distance, but she couldn't deal with this. Pisces couldn't be dead. She'd already failed Zenia, and now she would fail Pisces? It was reality that they would have to die if Jade was going to walk out of the arena alive, and she was aware of this deep down inside, but it wasn't supposed to happen when she was standing right there to witness it all! No, it was supposed to happen when they all went their separate ways as all alliances did in the last days. That way she wouldn't have to face it. There would only be a face in the sky and she could silently mourn the fallen without having to know what happened.

"Pisces!" She yelled out, as if that would make any sort of difference.

Jade didn't want to witness their death and feel responsible for it. Like there was something she could have done to prevent it from happening. Her hand loosened on her sword and she almost dropped it, but she couldn't yet. They were still there and a mutt was attacking them and Pisces was dead, oh Pisces was dead and she'd failed again. She wavered on her feet, and fought the urge to go over to him, to hold him, to promise sweet vengeance and promise she'll make it all better again. If she gave in to those urges, then surely the alliance and mutt before her would strike her down. She couldn't crumble. She was a warrior.

The other girl, Terra, struck the mutt down and for just a moment she considered sticking her sword into the girl's neck. Then she remembered Dominic, the only one she considered to be still alive. Zenia was a mutt, and could very well take care of herself. If she attacked Terra, gave in to the desire to extract blood from her opponent, then they would attack Dominic who was grieving for the boy he loved. She bit her bottom lip briefly, fighting her internal reactions before turning around and grabbing Dominic by the arm with all the strength she could muster. She attempted to pull him up.

"I'm sorry, Dom, we have to go," she cried. "We'll make them pay for it, Dom, I promise they will pay, but for now we have to go!" After the words leave her mouth, she turns to Pisces's killer and glares at him. He would die. Jade would make sure of it.

---

Jade flees / maiint stuff later
Table made by Puppy

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

wip filler flee!

[ jj flees ]