ghosts in bloom ; bb v. ffg ; day six

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

She listens to him die.

"Am I next?"

He doesn't respond to her. He doesn't fight.

"I think you have to be."

There's an echo of steel, and the thud of a body.

She has to hold a hand over her mouth, has to blink through the tears and swallow the bile that rises in her throat. Everything burns. It keeps burning. She starts to break down, coming to terms with what it really means to lose him.

This is not a thing that she can throw into the flood. She can't leave it to drown. He is dead, and gone, and she can only blame herself. She never held either of the swords that cut into him, but the blood's on her hands. They keep shaking.

Walking away is familiar, and still just as cruel. She can't bring herself to face whoever finished off her ally, so she leaves before the stone doors can part and the truth is revealed. She doesn't want to know. Let this be a memory.

Her feet are aching by the time the anthem starts, the music is like a hammer against her chest. It hurts to breathe. But she still looks up, meets his gaze for the last time and inhales sharply. He's smiling. He was always smiling.

She wonders if— and then stops. She exhales.

And keeps walking.

[the rest will be touched up later! gotta plot]

When she comes across Terra and JJ at their camp, she doesn't take out her crossbow. There's no one to get in her way now, to stop her arrow from puncturing a heart. She stands there, even as they rise to their feet and look at her with caution.

"Did you miss me?" she says to Terra, but her voice is raw and not as playful. She knows her eyes are swollen, and her cheeks are puffy, but she's not crying now. That counts for something. She steps into their territory, damning the consequences.

"I need help." Saying it feels like some kind of betrayal, but she's covered in blood and all of her wounds have started to burn again. The kitten won't stop crying. She walks over to Terra, placing the little beast in her arms. "Make him stop. Please."

She feels empty without him in her grasp, without him, but she needs to focus. She makes herself at home without an invitation, working on dressing her wounds with the limited resources she has left. "I'm an easy target. You could finish it."

She says this as she tries to stop the bleeding.

She says this knowing they won't kill her.

Mercy is a strange thing, and she has come to know it like an old friend. It feels like cotton in her hands, like stuffed animals in a play fight, like dramatic sounds and jokes and stories that never end. That go on and on and on — until she remembers the thud. The silence.

It's a flood.

It doesn't wash her away.

"You gonna leave me lonely, Terra?
You don't seem the type."

---

She doesn't remember passing out, but she wakes up alive. Terra and JJ are still there, with their throats intact. The kitten isn't crying anymore. "Okay, fun's over," she scolds the tiny terror, taking it away from Terra without asking.

It licks at her chin, and she hugs it against the crook of her neck. Her body is still in the flames, but she can walk. She can gather her supplies. "Where are you guys headed to?" Falling asleep with strangers is one thing, but travelling alone is another.

She stops gambling.

"Me and the demon will come with. Safety in numbers, and all that." She had planned to do this alone, but from the first day that has been impossible. There has always been someone following close behind, taking up every thought in her mind, haunting her or healing her.

She's not ready to sever those ties yet.

She's tying the broken thread in knots around her wrist.

Emmett is gone, and Niko is with him now. She has to leave their ghosts behind. They are no longer hers to carry, to protect, even as she holds the kitten just a little tighter. "It's just you and me," she whispers softly, surrounded on all sides by some terrible thing.

It's just you and me.

They start their journey out of the storm's eye, into the vortex of petals and thorns. She hides the kitten beneath her robe, pinching the fabric tightly against herself and crafting a makeshift hood to guard her face. She considers making a joke about the weather.

She doesn't.

But then shadows emerge, gaining shape as they approach. She focuses on the weapons that appear from the haze, locking her feet in place and pulling out her crossbow. She's not gambling now, trying to find a shot through the rushing wind.

She ducks to the side, crouches to a vantage spot behind a withered bush. The thorns cling to the branches for dear life, scratching her knuckles as she props her bow against it. "Don't wait for an invitation!" she calls out to Terra and JJ.

"I don't think they're gonna be our new friends."

'I'm not, either.'

But she pulls the trigger, and doesn't run.

perdita attacks kenji ; crossbow bolt #1
GRb3|2qT13bow
Arrow in Calf -- 6.0 damage ; +1 target practice (7)

bow

[lance]

The night confirms your suspicions twofold, if only evident by the faces in the sky. Two boys that were vaguely familiar - Steel's district partner and one of the legacy tributes, the Krane - and the girl from Twelve with the weird ass name - seriously, what kind of Twelve ass name was Bird anyway? - but Steel herself was nowhere to be found amongst the stars.

Not yet. She'd had her first chance, and now she was beneath some cave system no doubt, fighting whomever else had lost their footing on the surface the previous day. You'd know that night if her trial was successful, or merely another notch in the list of deaths that would forever be consigned to history.

It's with a grim expression that you slowly patch yourself up that night - so used had you gotten to Steel assisting you with sewing your worst wounds and patching up the rest that to do it on your own feels almost....

Lonely?

It's a new and unfamiliar feeling. You'd always prided yourself on your self reliance, relying on nobody but yourself. Sure, it'd been a doomed mission from the start, hence why you'd volunteered to join the Games in the first place, but it'd been.....nice, to have someone at your back. Someone watching out for you. Someone to watch out for.

And as your weapon had sunk into nothing but air, you'd simply stood and watched in horror as the beast ran into her with enough force to cave in her skull.

Revenge had seemed like such a hollow bounty to collect after that.

With the last of your bandages, the gift from your rebirth is used up, a sheathe of white against the bloody mess that was your leg. You lean back, hands on the ground and face staring up at the stars, your anger cooled but your frustration no less potent.

You're on your own now. Not for the first time, but perhaps for the last.

Or so you thought. It does not take long for movement to catch your eye - and you're already moving to your feet with your rock thing in your hand before a single word gives you pause.

"Wait."

Eyes widen, and you blink, for no way this can't possibly be-

"Lysander?"

---

It was, in fact, Lysander. Only now one of her arms was replaced with a metal construct and the ever present stink of the drink around her had long since worn off. So was it really your district partner, or some strange imitation of her?

The fact that you lived through the night did nothing to confirm nor deny your suspicions. But, you supposed if you could walk in a dumb street fighter kid and emerge as currently a murderer of two, then stranger things could still happen.

But the night passes without incident. The sun comes up, and Lysander and her ally from Eleven still remain. Anxiety takes over quickly - anxiety over whether your district partner was trustworthy enough to risk a longer partnership instead of an overnight truce, anxiety over who Steel was facing and whether that'd be enough to ensure she managed to escape, anxiety over -

You pause. There's something about the air...

"Something's not right," you manage to say, exactly half a second before a projectile manifests itself in your leg. Caught by surprise, there's no stopping the shout of pain that erupts from within, no escaping the sudden shot of white-hot pain manifesting within your system.

You'd think that after five days of getting stabbed, shot at, and straight up murdered that you'd get used to the feeling. But pain of this magnitude is something that requires more than a few days' worth to build up a tolerance.

With a frustrated grunt, you pull the bolt out of your leg, seeing to the results of yet another attack. An arrow. How fucking original. You knew you weren't the most intimidating at first glance, that after days and days of trial and error you looked beat up - but that didn't make it any less frustrating that yet again, you'd been selected as the weak link of the party. Be it with Steel or the pair of girls who you'd teamed up with for the night, it was always Kenji Kenji Kenji.

Oh well. You did say you were in this for the fight. And what fun was a fight when the enemy didn't hit back.

You scan the surrounding area for a figure. Upon first glance, you find nothing but a strangely shaped cloud blotting out the sun and the ever present presence of the swirling maelstrom of plant matter.

On your second glance, your gaze lands on two familiar faces, and you cannot suppress the swear any harder than you could the shot of pain.

"Good to see you again too, Terra!" you call out towards the others. "I don't suppose we can call this even now and go our separate ways, huh?"

But even as you say the words out loud, you know that's not how things work. This is the Hunger Games, and in the end, friendships must always come second to personal selfishness if you're going to survive.

"So be it," comes the mutter, so low that only you can hear.

And as you grab your rock thing and charge the duo, there are more than a few thoughts running through your mind. How there's an unseen sniper, truly a threat but nowhere to be seen. How the Career boy that had tagged along with them was noticeably absent - had he died the previous day? Was he now fighting Steel beneath the earth?

And how despite your repeated attempts to convince yourself that you know what must be done and that you have the backbone to do it, facing Terra Markov down for the second time is much, much worse than it was the first.

So at the last second you veer off course, swing your weapon towards the boy - for you'd seen him cave in the Three boy's chest two days ago, knew at least somewhat what he was capable of.

If nothing else, it'd be a fight on equal terms.

Murderer versus murderer.

kenji attacks jj; geode morningstar

JXv83SSOEQspiked blunt

14029 -- BROKEN RIGHT COLLAR BONE -- 6.5 damage

spiked blunt

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

lysander.

"Irritated by me? Then live like me.
Think you can walk in my shoes?
Look at me now, I’m your complex, bitch"

They were alone.

Even in her deepest sleep Lysander knew that something was off. The dreams that plagued her were filled with long empty halls and seemingly no way out. She hadn't had a nightmare since the second night she was here. Something was wrong. Her comforting presence was no longer near. She bolted upright and looked around in the middle of the night, searching for her even though she already knew Meredith was long gone.

"Bella."

The whispers echoed through the near empty area, and she was frightened that she would alert other tributes to their location. They were in no condition to fight, especially without Mer. She crawled closer to her other ally and grabbed her shoulders, attempting to shake the drowsiness right out of her.

"Bella wake up. She's gone."

“What- who...? Mer? Where- where she’d go?”

"I don't know, but we have to find her. I don't think she's okay."

And without another word the two girls gathered their things and headed out on what seemed to be a hopeless search. The darkness of the night made it nearly impossible, but the two knew that they had to find her tonight.

Because if they waited until tomorrow, she might not be alive.

The two wandered around for what seemed like hours, but neither of them dared asked to stop. It seemed hopeless, until finally they saw a figure not too far in the distance. Lysander's eyes lit up, and her hear beat just a little faster. Maybe they would be able to find her, maybe they would all be okay, but the closer they got the more she could tell this wasn't Meredith, but a male tribute. Hopefully he hadn't seen them yet.

"Weapons up. Be ready."

Together, they approached him stealthily. She was just about to give the signal to attack when she realized this wasn't any random tribute, but someone she recognized very well.

Wait. I know him."

She stepped out of the brush and presented herself to the mysterious figure, no longer afraid of the stranger.

"Lysander?"

"Hey Kenji, fancy seeing you here."

Bella looked nervously between the two. Her eyes flashing back and forth, clearly not sure whether to attack or run away. She put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry, we can trust him."

Hopefully Patricia hadn't put a bounty on her head.

"Well, I'm taking first watch."

The young girl purposefully placed herself between the two Five's, clearly still not sure if trusting the new boy was smart. She held tightly onto her weapon and Lys finally drifted off to sleep.

Nightmares still plaguing her sleep.

The sun rose and morning finally came, all three of them surprisingly still alive. She was right to trust Kenji, for now at least. The new trio set off, destination unknown, but finding Meredith still in the front of her mind. She was just about to suggest turning around when Kenji stopped, clearly perplexed.

"Something's not right,"

A breeze passes the side of your head as an arrow races by and drives itself deep into Kenji's leg.

"Looks like we've got company."

And company that they knew very well at that. The alliance they had fought a few days before. The alliance that Bella sent a knife straight through one of her eyes. It was blurry for her, she remembered more, she remembered death and that was all. JJ and Terra appeared from the whirlwind of petals, but the boy from Two was gone and replaced with a girl she didn't recognize.

"Oh so I see you picked up a new girlfriend JJ. She's cute."

She tossed a wink at the mystery girl. They seemed to be evenly matched. The last time they had faced them they were victorious, hopefully luck would be on their side once more. Her eyes narrowed as she stared down the girl from Six. The two had an odd relationship, not friends, but not enemies. Unfortunately it would never be anything more.

There's no room for friends here.

"Was it you, Terra? Are you the reason she's gone?"

She raised her voice to be heard over the roaring winds. The fingers on her good hand wrapped around her weapon as she walked closer.

"You always hated Meredith, but taking her in the middle of the night? I never thought you to be a coward."

Lysander had been alone her whole life.

And she was just growing used to having someone there.

elegant

( lysander attacks terra ; star geode )
96fmbLY2VJspiked blunt
( gash/bruised right femur - 4.0 )

spiked blunt

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

At first, it's silent.

JJ curls into himself and I decide it's better to let him. I don't know how to comfort him, not really, not even sure where I could begin guessing if I'm honest with myself. I don't even know how to coach myself through it, don't know what to feel, what I'm supposed to do in response to my ally leaving and what I'm not. A part of me wants to scream, wants to pound my fist into a tree truck until it is broken and bloody and ruined. Another part of me wants to track Will's steps through the storm and find wherever he makes camp for the night and cut his throat just for making me feel this way all over again, abandoned and forgotten and not good enough.

Never fucking good enough.

I tell myself over and over that I'm strong, that I'm a feral thing with an off-kilter smile and a pension for cruelty. But maybe I just like to lash out, like to take every emotion that I have ever felt and channel it into the end of my blade until everything, even happiness, is some terrible form of violence.

But Perdita shows up, and JJ cowers into himself even more, and it's all that I can do not to try and cut her throat just for the sheer fact that JJ zips his tent shut and I know he won't be speaking for the rest of the night. Just for the sheer fact that I know she got JJ's hopes up that Will had changed his mind, that he'd followed his own footsteps back to us to try and reverse his own selfish decisions.

I don't say anything at first, just look at Perdita with a dead look that only a girl who knows Death a little bit too well would be able to give. I—I don't want her here. That much I am sure of. But at the same time, I don't not want her here. She asks me if I missed her, but all I can give her is that same dead stare that I gave to Will what feels like only moments ago. That same dead look that says I am never going to let anyone in ever again. That same dead look that, I hope, says anyone who ever fucking looks at JJ wrong ever again is going to fucking eat my knife.

The same look that says, if Death is ready for me, let them come when I am protecting the boy I never expected to care about.

I take the kitten without a word, cuddle him between my arms and my chest, hold him close and watch as JJ pokes his head out, hopeful, only to crawl back away from the both of us scowling. I don't think twice when I go to the entrance of his tent, cross my ankles and fall to a seat, kitten still in my arms. It quieted almost immediately, like the neglected creature understood without having to ever be told that it was among kin.

You could finish it, she says, cleaning her own wounds. I don't offer to help, and she doesn't ask, so I keep running my pointer finger between the kittens' eyes to try and comfort it instead. You gonna leave me lonely, Terra? You don't seem the type.

"I'm not going to let you out of my sight," I respond simply, voice flat. Will leaving has left me emptier than I thought possible.

I spend the night listening to JJ's breathing through the zipper, learning what Perdita looks like when she is pretending not to mourn whoever she's helped end up dead. I don't sleep a wink, just run my hand down the kitten's spine over and over and over again.

---

I don't even try to protest when Perdita just decides that she's coming along, don't protest when she snatches the kitten out of my hands. It doesn't matter to her that I'm the one that calmed it down, that I'm the one that made it feel better, that I'm the one holding us together with sticks and glue. She calls the thing that kept me company all night a demon and half of me wonders if she thinks the exact same thing about me—girl she flirted with in the Training Center, maybe girl she dreamed about for a night or two before realizing that she was here for herself.

A career through and through, just like Will had been.

"Do what you want," I say to her trying to take charge. "But even so much as think about notching a bow JJ's direction and you're going to be trying to see around the knife in your eye."

I'm not going to let myself love her the same way that I think maybe, just maybe I loved Will. That doesn't stop me being grateful for a flash of a moment when, without much warning, there stand three tributes ahead of us. Lysander, looking somehow not worse for wear and yet, worse than she ever had before. Like stopping drinking is tearing her apart, but in its own strange way, the pain is making her stronger.

Kenji, with his morning star pointed right towards me once again.

"You first," I respond when he speaks, but before I think he even hear what I've said he's running right towards me, changing course at the last possible moment and—crack.

Once again, I fail to protect JJ.

But then there's her.

The girl I have dreamed about killing the past few nights. The girl I vowed to haunt. The one who's life I want to end more than I think I have ever wanted to end a life before.

The one who killed Helle.

And as much as I want to direct all of my anger at Kenji now, want to shout at him that I'd never planned to betray him, that I didn't want to fight him, that maybe in another life I respected him and wanted to be his friend—the girl with dark hair is right there and she killed Helle and Lys is telling me that Meredith is dead and I am all rage and confusion and I don't know what to do except want to scream because Lys's fucking morning star swung into my leg and I only just got it all nice and healed and—"If she's gone, she deserves to be!" I spit through sharp teeth, voice filled with heat. "I didn't fucking touch her, but I wish I had."

I twist away from Lys's weapon, ignore every impulse in me that screams I should attack Kenji for touching JJ, and attacking the source of my pain instead.

"You," I spit at the one whose name I don't know, still. Despite everything, despite what she's done, I don't even know her name. "You killed Helle. You need to answer for that."

✩  terra attacks arabella, misericorde  ✩

Rn6b6fthQzknife

[ 2105 - dg left thigh - 8.0 ]

knife

[k!ah]

a r a b e l l a .

Down in the deep
Where the sirens sing
And hide in the muddy water
Blood on my hands
And the moonlit sand
But I'd die just to keep them under

Eyes turned to that sky that night, she clung to the seed of hope that slowly had begun to blossom in her chest. She let it wrap her in a warm embrace, similar to the one Cyro had wrapped her in the night she had killed Helle. But as the anthem begun to play the embraced turned ice cold. The seed of hope the encased her heart began to crack, until the final blow: Cryo's face in the night sky, shattered it completely. His eyes stared down at her, those eyes that had been filled with a kindness that she would never forget. Those eyes, which at first, had sent her into a fit of rage, had slowly melted and revealed a kind hearted souls and a boy that she had begun to fully trust.

Her lip begun to tremble, as forced herself to look away. "Cyro... Cryo I'm so sorry," she whispers, hugging her torn cloak closer around her exhausted body. The first tears fell and her heart pounded at the base of her throat, he was gone. Really gone. And the realisation that she would never see him again hit her like a blow to the gut, winding her as she gasped for air. She would never hear him talk about his Amira again... She would never see his face light up with joy and pride as he gushed about his son. About Xander-

Xander.

Another orphan of district Eleven. Another child left parentless, to fend for themselves in a world that was truly wicked. She wished that upon no one. She clearly remembers the vow that she made to him that day as she held his hand as his as he took his dying breathes. For as long as she lived and breathed she would never forget it. "He will know, Cyro. I promise you, he will know." She gasps between her silent sobs. He will know how much you loved him.

______________________________________________

"Bella. Bella wake up. She's gone" Lysander's voice pulls her from her sleep. Her eyes, refusing to open, burned from exhaustion. She had barely slept, for the fifth night in a row. It was starting to take a toll on her. Her head felt so heavy and she wanted to push the girl away and return to the darkness where she felt nothing. She didn't dream as she slept, her mind thrown into an endless void of nothing. She supposed that was better than her sleepless night being filled with nightmares, when her waking hours were already fulfilling that role. She's gone.

“What- who...? Mer? Where- where she’d go?” The questions fall from her lips as she forces herself into a sitting position. Darkness surrounded them, the gentle light from the stars and moon not allowing her to see very far. But she was right, Meredith Strauss was gone, leaving just Lysander and Arabella in the small clearing.

"I don't know, but we have to find her. I don't think she's okay." No, Arabella didn't think she was okay too. Yesterday she had been off from the moment they had woke. Arabella had found herself worrying about her that evening, observing her as they sat in the small clearing. Usually there might have been some banter thrown around, but last night they had all been pretty quiet. Arabella had not known what to say, or the best way to approach her, to try and hold the pieces of the breaking girl together. But they were all breaking, all struggling to hold on and Arabella was exhausted. So instead she had pulled her cloak over her head and sat in silence, lost in her own chaotic thoughts.

She should have pushed through her exhaustion. It was obvious that Mer needed her- if not her, someone- to push that little bit harder, to fight that little bit harder for her. Arabella should have fought that little bit harder, but instead she had given up. She should have fought for her.

Lysander and Arabella searched for hours. Arabella's feet had long started aching, her muscles burning as she trudged around in the darkness, her eyes searching for any sign of movement, for their lost ally. But neither of them spoke, neither of them asked to stop, to give up. Neither of them would, desperate to hold onto there crumbling alliance-

"Weapons up. Be ready." Quickly Arabella tightened her grip on her blade, brining it across her body she filled Lysander's gaze to a male tribute. They stalked closer, their steps silent. Arabella's gaze hovered between her ally and the unknown tribute ahead. "Wait. I know him." She whispered and step out of their cover. Arabella hangs back for another moment, she didn't recognise him. But after a moment she steps out beside Lysander, her fingers still grasped tightly around the hilt of her blade. She could not lose another.

"Lysander?"

"Hey Kenji, fancy seeing you here." Lysander seems to relax, but Arabella remains tense, her eyes not for one moment leaving the boy before her. She didn't trust him, she couldn't trust him, not when she had lost Cyro and Meredith in the space of a couple days. There was only one person that she trusted in this Arena at the moment and that was the girl by her side. Lysander notices her worry and places a hand of her shoulder, "don't worry, we can trust him." A slight smile dances on her lips and Arabella wants to believe her, but trust was hard to find in the arena so instead she puts herself between the two.

"Well, I'm taking first watch."

__________________________________________________________

The sun begins to peak over the horizon, the first rays of light caressing her. skin. It should have felt warm, but she barely felt anything, her mind and body numb as she begun to clear up her belongings, constantly finding her gaze traveling back to the boy from five.

They don't make it far when Kenji pauses, "Something's not right," the words have nearly left his lips before an arrow rains down on him, burring itself into his calf. Instantly Arabella pulls out her sword, her eyes examining the forrest before them. Then two faces which haunt her nightmares step out before her and she takes a nervous step back. Panic begins to surge through she saw Jamison Wolfram crawl over to the lifeless body of his district partner, as she hears Terra Markov's screams as she rushes to catch her falling ally. As she sees her knife burry itself into Hellemine Cauchemar's eye. Swallowing hard she tries to duck behind a tree, her chest heaving as she fought to contain the panic.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't face them.

Not after what she'd done-

"You," the one word filled with so much hate that Arabella freezes instantly, her face paling as she turns to face Terra Markov- she understood why they called her Terra... Her legs felt like lead as she reused to look the girl in the eyes. Suddenly a burning pain surged through her leg, and a cry of pained slipped past the guard of her lips. "You killed Helle. You need to answer for that." Her knife was coated in blood- her blood.

"I'm- I'm sorry," it sounded truly pathetic. What was the point of apologising? It was too late. Helle was dead. and it was Arabella's fault. She should let the girl strike her down. she should. But she couldn't. She wasn't ready to die, she had made a vow to Katelyn. She had made a vow to Cyro. To Ellen and Matthew. She had to fight. And fight she would.

"I see her every time I close my eyes. I hate myself for it. For killing her... But I had no choice. You were killing my allies. Someone had to die." She pauses sucking on her tooth, as she remembers the way her body crumpled to the earth. Lifeless. Gathering her courage. "It was a shame that it had to be her. But I would have chosen any of you over any of my allies."

[ Arabella attacks terra with sabre(sword) ]
lTbrrCAzO2sword
[Shallow Cut on Left Calf -- 3.5 damage]

sword

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

The end felt inevitable.

It was fucking inevitable.

Despite his protests, Will had gone, the only evidence he'd ever been there in the first place a gap in the swarming silver-painted petals, and JJ's habit of immediately climbing to the furthest side of the tent. Because the other side was too cold. And now it didn't matter, because he wouldn't sleep regardless. He did what JJ did best and turned inward on himself. Introspection would be the death of him, he was sure. But when he tried to get out of his head, he just replaced whatever fearful thoughts that were plaguing him with incessant begging on his own behalf. Get out of your head, get out of your head, get out of your head. Stop thinking. Get out of your head. Stop thinking. You're endangering yourself and everyone around you. Get out of your head. Stop thinking.

The distraction was never ending, and maybe that's why he'd relied so much on the others. They made it seem so easy: "Six o'clock, Jay!" "Aim for the middle." "Duck!" When they said it, it made sense. Nothing else ever did.

He curled in on himself, eyes staring at the flames despite knowing Terra's eyes were on him. Despite knowing that she was worried. Despite realizing that she was the only one he had left.

The only time that night, in fact, that he'd perked up at all, is when he first noticed the figure emerging from the darkness. His eyes went wide and he picked his chin up from their resting place on his knees.

"Will!"

Only to find moments later that it was the girl from Four.

He thought about killing her; saw the opportunity to send a knife to be lodged into her forehead, but he didn't take it. Because if she wanted to kill him, she would. That was the truth about everyone there. If any single one of them set their sights on finishing him off, they would succeed, because despite everything he had ever believed about himself, the sickening truth was that he was weak.

"Oh," he'd whispered, disappointed. No one else seemed interested in a fight either, so he slowly stood and doused the flames. He returned to his tent and zipped it as a way of saying he just didn't give a fuck, and he waited for sleep to take him.

---

The next morning, things were better. Not good, but better. His jaw didn't hurt as much from chewing, so he felt more inclined to talk. His arm, though sore, still worked. His heart, though sore, still beat.

Plus, it felt nice to hear Terra be so clearly still in his corner, even if she was only saying it to make him feel better and even if she would probably, eventually, either be taken from him or be tasked with killing him in order to get home. Every day of the arena was a new layer of hell. Always full of fire and screams and pain, but somehow still always worse than before.

On this day, it was a few familiar faces, some of whom he'd already seen before. Lysander and the girl from 11. Mer wasn't there, because why would she be? Anyone who bothered to get close to JJ was as good as dead. He was a bad luck charm, it seemed, death itself wrapped up in 72 inches, a pair of soft brown eyes, an easy smile, and a head with far too many thoughts.

"Oh so I see you picked up a new girlfriend JJ. She's cute."

He didn't bother dignifying it with a response, instead choosing to train his eyes on the boy who hadn't been with them before.

"Your new toy isn't so bad, either."

The new boy didn't like this, it would seem. And the result was a swing, a loud cracking noise somewhere near JJ's shoulder, and instant pain. Add it to the list. He breathed out, heavy sighs as Perdita fired an arrow into the boy and Terra went for the girl from 11. He'd lost too many already. If this boy wanted to kill him, he could accept that. If he had to die, he wanted it to be before Terra, so rather than engaging, he sidestepped and raced forward. His eyes stung with tears, panic racing through him. Don't hurt her, Don't hurt her. Don't die for me, Terra. Don't do it. He kept his glare square on 11.

"She was -" A district partner? An ally?

"a friend!"

The truth of it stung.

He didn't have too many left those days.

[ jj attacks arabella, morning star ]
y8K3ausfp6spiked blunt
[14134 -- BROKEN RIB -- 7.0 damage +1 strength]

spiked blunt

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

She keeps to the storm.

Her knuckles sting, still resting against the thorns, but her pain is nothing compared to the crack that JJ's collarbone makes — the blood gushing down the dark haired girl's thigh — the blur of weapons biting into Terra's skin — the arrow tearing through the other boy's calf.

The one she had fired.

This is her war, but she has the audacity to stand behind the firing line. She notches another arrow, tilting her head downwards as she does. "You okay, runt?" She should be kinder to the little monster, but this feels right. There's nothing better to say.

It rubs its head against her ribs, curls up in the dark layers of her robe. It purrs. And she places her finger on the trigger again, blocking out the pulse of pain moving across her still open scars. They'll close up eventually. She is biding her time.

She lines up her shot again, trying to hold the crossbow far enough that the wind will direct the arrow on the right course. She doesn't know this boy she has chosen to hurt. She hardly knows any of these people. But she knew Emmett, and she knew Niko, and where are they now?

Maybe she is an omen.

'Did you come to die?' she had asked the beast that attacked her just the day before. It died at her feet, and she walked over its corpse without a second glance.

Perhaps what she has always meant to say is this;
'I have come, and now you must die.'

perdita attacks kenji ; crossbow bolt #2
OkQdbkzP8|bow
miss, not using accuracy

bow

[lance]

"Your new toy isn't so bad, either."

You're no stranger to trash talk. Hell, it was practically a must-have talent to pick up back on the streets of home if you were ever going to carve out a place for yourself. It was the one part of crowd pandering that you enjoyed, lashing with your tongue as well as your firsts and shrugging off any return insults. You'd developed a thick skin over the years, which is why the flash of anger that flashes before your eyes catches you by surprise.

To be fair, you were perhaps more stressed out than you had ever been in your streetfights, for this wasn't for fun, for money - this was for your fucking life. Well, that, and being called a toy was a new one. Was that how Sevens insulted each other?

But perhaps the most perplexing part of it was that there was no retaliation. Not on you, anyway. The boy shrugged it off, went for Eleven - you really hadn't picked up her name, huh - and with a resounding CRACK, smacked his weapon into her chest.

It was a tactic you remembered well. Too well. It was the same tactic that you had executed in order to claim victory way back on the second day. Ignore your attackers, focus on the target, shrug off the wounds.

It'd worked well. At least, until you had died.

A second arrow flies past your face, before burying itself into the plant matter. You look towards where it had come, trying desperately to hide the panic of your racing heart, and raise a single finger in the sniper's directing in a gesture that, in Five at least, was universally recognizable.

And then you run after the boy from Seven, for at the end of the day this girl from Eleven is your ally and you are obligated to help her. The sniper can shoot at you from afar, but at the end of the day going after them is a waste of time and effort.

And besides, a small part of you wants to prove to the boy from Seven that some toys can hurt back.

...

That didn't really make sense to you in reflection, but the point still stands as you swing at him from behind.

kenji attacks jj; geode morningstar

8zidMS17uKspiked blunt

14188 -- BROKEN RIGHT WRIST -- 6.5 damage

spiked blunt

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

lysander.

"Irritated by me? Then live like me.
Think you can walk in my shoes?
Look at me now, I’m your complex, bitch"

Vengence.

It was something that the Mae family knew all too well.

When you deal with dirty business, you eventually expect the business to bite back and her family had too many enemies to count. They lined the street disguised as average citizens, sometimes even disguised as friends. Hyram took no chances, only the closest of allies were allowed into the inner circle, and even then they knew only what was necessary. He allowed no loose ends, and when one would slip rage would consume her father. An unhealthy obsession until the wrong doer had paid their price. Lysander knew what revenge looked like all too well.

And it was written all over Terra and JJ's face.

Bella had killed their ally. It was swift and clean and she didn't suffer, but she was still the bringer of death. The two didn't seem to think too kindly of her, and when they realized who she was they did not hesitate to attack.

"Your new toy isn't so bad, either."

"Actually he's the much better half of Five. I'm just a waste of space."

Patricia had never said it to her face, but she knew deep down that was what she thought. Useless, a throw away. Lysander was there so no one who brought good to the District died in her place.

"If she's gone, she deserves to be! I didn't fucking touch her, but I wish I had."

"Do you really think any of us deserve this? Truly?"

Both their weapons come crashing down and are followed by a sickening crack. Lysander knew that sound all too well, but she was not sure what was broken. In a rage she was about to lash out again, but Kenji beat her to it, adding another loud crack to the battle field.

"So you're just as good as they say I see."

And she laughed even though this was most certainly not a time for laughing. He could've gotten rid of her quickly and easily, but he didn't. She's not sure why he chose to spare her because if anyone deserved to die it was most certainly. Not Bella, not Meredith, but herself. Lysander's eyes met with Terra's and fire consumed her.

Revenge.

She never thought it would solve anything.

Until now.

elegant

( lysander attacks terra ; star geode )
xybYrvYeFTspiked blunt
( block - 0.0 )

accuracy ;


spiked blunt
( broken left knee - 7.0 )

spiked blunt·spiked blunt

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

I'm sorry, the girl echoes, but the word sound hollow, like maybe she wants to mean them but still doesn't quite. Like she knows that apologies don't mean shit in here, like no matter what it doesn't change the truth of the fact that Helle is dead and it's because she put a knife in her eye and it doesn't change the truth of the fact that she would do it all over again.

A part of me doesn't even really blame her, understands that remorse is fickle and pointless. But that same voice knows there are consequences for the cruelties we enact upon others.

And I am prepared to show her what consequence looks like.

"You think I want your apology?" I spit at her, trying to dart out of the way of her knife. It catches against my shin though, shallow and sharp and stinging, but nothing I don't know how to handle. "Your apology is worthless, Eleven."

I want to say more, think that there's something else on the tip of my tongue, but then JJ hurdles towards her and I want to shout at him to back the fuck off and just leave me with the three of them, tell him to get out and use his throwing knives from a distance and just let them try to kill me. I'll take at least one of them down in the process, I'm sure of it. Something cracks in her chest and I can hear it from here and I almost want to grin at JJ but then—snap.

And I break.

A low scream of pain rips out of my chest at the shock, and I realize that I've underestimated Lysander because I can hardly feel my knee which I'm pretty sure means that it's in so much pain that my brain is trying to block it out and—"Yes," I say through the debilitating pain in my left leg, a late reply to Lys. "Some of us deserve this."

I can't think, can only feel pain and anger, so I go for the throat.

✩  terra attacks arabella, misericorde  ✩

vFyjd3P52Eknife

[ 2110 - dg right forearm - 8.0 ]

knife

[k!ah]

a r a b e l l a .

Down in the deep
Where the sirens sing
And hide in the muddy water
Blood on my hands
And the moonlit sand
But I'd die just to keep them under

Helle's district partner darts into her line of vision. The emotions written all over his face cause Arabella to hesitate, her feet glued to the ground as he approaches, weapon raised. the glare it settle on reminds her of the kids in the orphanage back home. The ones that whispered nasty things:

Her parents are better without her.

She's crazy.

Nobody will ever love her. 

I hope she dies.

Pain burst like fire in her chest, burning the oxygen from her lungs as she is knocked to the ground, her body withering in the dirt as she fought to breathe. But each time her lungs expanded it burned, like she was breathing fire. "I-" she gasps, "I can't-" breathe. Fighting against the pain she rolls onto all fours, her lungs working over time as they remembered the process on how to accept oxygen into her system. Ragged breaths in and out and her eyes, surging with a world of pain that she had never experienced before, meets Lysander's. She was petrified. Her body was crying out to her, her muscles burning, her bones breaking, and her mind shaking.

She wanted to go home.

She would prefer to face the storm of the children of her childhood, that the vengeance filled gazes of the two people her sought to end her life. She hadn't realised how terrified she was about dying until this moment. And despite herself she wished that it would be quick. Quick and painless. Not like this, drawn out by blows that carved into her youthful body. That stole her breath. That caused her to feel every strike as her blood seeped into the earth around her.

"Lys..." she moves to reach of Lysander, scrambling to her feet, when Terra strikes again, her blade colliding with the armour that encased Arabella's forearm. It breaks under the pressure, her knife kissing her skin before retracting. "Argh," Arabella groans, holding her injured arm to her chest.

"You think I want your apology?"

No.

"Your apology is worthless, Eleven."

Yes.

Yes. Her apology was worthless, two days too late, and to the wrong person. Arabella should be apologising to Helle, not Terra.

"You're right. It is worthless. And maybe- no, Yes I do deserve this," her chest burns, the words laced with pain, as she fights the urge to flinch as she manages to spit out each word. "Maybe we all do-"

Her words are cut of as Lysander's club crashes into her body, a sickening crack followed by a scream of pain. Now Arabella instructs herself, raising her blade she moves towards Terra. She doesn't Hesitate this time, not when the burning in her thigh, chest and wrist remind her of the consequences of missing. "I'm not ready to die," she whispers, so quietly, that she is not sure that it will be heard by the battle cry that escapes her lips.

[ Arabella attacks terra with sabre(sword) ]
xBV_1MtiHusword
[Stabbed in Forearm -- 8.5 damage]

sword

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

It had started as sadness, the feeling in his stomach. Melancholy heartbreak and loneliness. He felt separate from the rest of the world: irrelevant but also hidden somehow, and he supposed he couldn't lie and say he hadn't found some comfort in that. And then, when they raised their weapons at Terra, the sadness had mutated into worry. Heart racing panic and split second decisions. He wasn't thinking of himself, he wasn't thinking of the foe. He wasn't thinking of home. He was thinking, Terra can't die. I can't die. None of us can.

"Perdita! Can you please get him off of me?"

The toy wasn't much fun to play with.

But now, broken as ever, full of every kind of pain- the swells of which reached highs he couldn't imagine possible- it had changed again. And it was something that he recognized with scary accuracy, something that had been a dormant part of every decision he had ever made. A piece of his soul that he hadn't ever realized was taking up more than its fair share of his heart.

Anger.

He walked so close to the flames within his mind that he could almost smell the singed hair and feel the blisters rising against his skin. His was the fury; he gave nothing in that moment, only took. His dignity, for starters. He wouldn't die a fractured skeleton, and though there was not a bone within him that had not been snapped or crushed or popped out of place in the last several days, he took. And he took. And he took. Power and rage were one, his eyes wide with the red of it.

"Don't. Fucking. Touch her."

He said the words directly to the girl from Eleven, harbinger of death who'd reaped one soul he never wished to see gone from him already. Maybe it made him selfish. He didn't care. He could be selfish. He could be the bad guy. He could be hateful and cold and scary if that's what it took.

Every word was a plea: Fight me instead. He couldn't explain it, but for the first time, he knew he could handle it. When dying was such a regular possibility, it began to lose its luster. If he died, fine. He was done waiting for the end. He was done expecting it. And he was done allowing people the chance of letting it happen to him.

Together, he and Terra were two people so broken that maybe, just maybe, together they could be one whole.

He hated the idea of becoming the person who killed the boy from Three again. But then he remembered something: he already was that person. So, he aimed for the chest, wanting nothing more than to see it caved in so badly that the girl could no longer breathe.

[ jj attacks arabella, morning star ]
O2IdhIbU6Fspiked blunt
[14072 -- BROKEN STERNUM -- 7.5 damage +1 strength]

spiked blunt

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

"Perdita! Can you please get him off of me?"

She rolls her eyes. He can't see it.

"Can you stop the wind for me?"

He's clearly not a boy to be tested, what with the way he cracks bones with that morning star of his — but she has always danced with danger, and she clearly has the advantage here. Her newfound companions are taking the brunt of the retaliation for her warning shot.

The one that had ripped through a boy's leg.

But, hey, the second one missed.

Let's say that was the warning.

This doesn't stop her from notching another arrow, rolling her shoulders to wring out the tension in her muscles. It's feels like ages since she has been able to sit back and not be in the thick of the carnage, dodging blades and wiping off blood into her hair.

The thorns keep biting her knuckles, the kitten keeps purring, the wind keeps roaring. She clears her throat, popping her neck with a twist. She doesn't see the point in pretending that this is anything more than what it truly is — a great fucking day.

Let them all tear themselves apart.

There's no one here that she cares to lose.

Those boys are gone. They will never come back.

Not again. Not for her.

She pulls the trigger.

She is not in pain anymore.

perdita attacks kenji ; crossbow bolt #3
Z6u5BB4h5pbow
miss

bow

[lance]

"Perdita! Can you please get him off of me?"

You pause for just a second, for instead of trash talk, now you're being shrugged off. You gaze back towards the bushes - towards wherever this Perdita was - a vague memory seemed to point towards the girl from Four -, just in time to see another projectile fly towards you.

It's almost laughably easy to step back and watch it whiz past you a second time. Not sure why anybody with half a brain would want to trust dealing with someone to someone with that sort of aim, you think. Again, you consider your options - Seven seems more interested in dealing with his vendetta against Eleven than he is turning to fight you head on, whereas the sniper - Perdita, whatever - has made it clear that you are the one in her sights. You could ignore the other, watch her fire her bolts at your general direction until you were upon her and she'd have to fight you another way.

Fighting another Career would be exhilarating. But you were not stupid - projectile weapons unnerved you, especially in the aftermath of yesterday. The wound that the boy, Bird's ally, had dealt to you, sinking a blade straight into your hand, still stung, and what was the point of even trying to close the distance when that just gave her a better chance to skewer you?

So no. You were eager for a fight, yes, but you weren't suicidal.

So it was time to change tactics.

"What's wrong, Seven? Didn't take you for the type to be scared of fighting me." You already knew that fear was probably the last reason that he didn't swing his own rock thing in your direction, but what better way to get a guy's blood boiling than threatening their masculinity? "'specially after you crushed that boy's chest in the other day."

But the trash talk isn't so biting, isn't so natural. Because hadn't you done the exact same thing to Bird whatever from Twelve yesterday? You told yourself that it didn't bother you, that it was merely necessary, yet the crack from your weapon yesterday still echoed through your skull, the same way that your shout of desperation still burned at your throat when you'd stuck your knife into Emmett's eye.

"I'm the same way, you know. Killed Twelve's girl yesterday the exact same way." Then, the bite returns. "Guess I figured that'd be why you'd be fun to fight, y'know? Murderer versus murderer. It was fun when I fought that Career boy, and I thought you'd be the same way."

You tilt your head to one side, something between a look of confusion and a leer formed across your face. "Guess I was wrong."

Blood drips from your weapon as you heft it in your hands yet again.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not above hitting you from behind."

kenji attacks jj; geode morningstar

MGKJHqmG3Ospiked blunt

14059 -- DEEP GASH ON BACK OF HEAD -- 9.0 damage

spiked blunt

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

lysander.

"Irritated by me? Then live like me.
Think you can walk in my shoes?
Look at me now, I’m your complex, bitch"

So I’m currently sitting in the dentist chair because I totally forgot I had this appointment LOL

Anyway here’s a filler

She probably tells terra that she’s the one who deserves it and reassured Bella that she’s doesn’t

elegant

( lysander attacks terra ; star geode )
hQ7VXYAl4ospiked blunt
( result )


spiked blunt