it's buzzcut season anyway. \\ scout's honor.

[✨ zozo.]

🗡

Someone had to rest their hand on my back for me to stop.

I just kept stabbing. Die, die, die, in time with the voice in my head. The creature had stopped squirming at some point, fallen still, and I'd hacked at its body so grotesquely that I found myself knelt on the ground up to my elbows in green blood.

I couldn't stop. Half of it was blind fear that it would wake up again. Half of it blind rage for daring to touch any of us. I was horrified, but for the first time I'd felt safe in the horror. Like I had a fighting chance. Like I'd had a miracle bestowed upon me: a gift and a curse.

I'd felt a gentle palm on my spine and snapped out of it so suddenly I gasped, dropping the knife from my hand. Finger bones that ached from how violently I had been clutching my blade, there was so much unused adrenaline coursing through me that I had no choice but to start sobbing.

The worst part is that I couldn't control it. It just poured out of me, even as someone tended to the wound on my leg and the gash across Ariel's forehead and the one in Areto's arm. All I could do was sit on the trail and shake, trying and failing miserably to collect myself. At one point I tried to thread a needle but my hands shook so terribly that I almost lost the damn thing in the dirt, and that just made me cry even more.

It felt pathetic, but it also felt true. The sun began to arch back down toward the trees and whatever had been causing havoc inside of me died down, exhausted from the fight and the shock to my system. Only as I wiped the last of my tears away and stood up could I choke out a "Sorry" to the group, unable to look any of them directly in the eyes.

Blade of steel, back to blade of grass. At least I hardened when it mattered, I told myself, sheepishly kicking the toes of my boots into the dirt.

leisuring! does stuff in maint

[Python]

a r i e l .

"freedom, oh freedom
like a hearbeast
can drive you mad."

Guardian angels struck the beasts down. Areto was a graceful warrior, while Blade used raw anger to coat the grass in green ooze. Ariel paused to stare at the disheveled scene, half-expecting the bugs to revive and start filling her ears with that painful buzz. It was oddly quiet now that they were dead, even with Blade releasing her rage upon the corpses. Ariel was in too much pain to judge. She knew the games changed people, and she didn't know Blade very well to begin with - maybe this was her true nature, a storm behind closed doors.

It was intimidating, but Ariel still trusted her. Foolishly.

Once she processed that they were safe, she hobbled over to a shady spot under the trees and sat down. Her head was pounding. Some of the blood had dried, making her feel like her face was made of concrete. She begged for a simple gust of wind, anything to help relieve the heat searing her skin. There was water in her bag, but she knew better than to waste it. She sifted around for her medical supplies instead. It wasn't until she held the bandages up that she realized she didn't have a mirror. If they were still by the lake, she could've used its reflection to tend her wound. Right now, it was best that they rest here unless more bugs showed up.

"Hey!" She called out to anyone who would listen. Maybe it was selfish to ask so early, as they all had their own wounds to heal, but she was happy to lend her own helping hand to whomever needed it. She had learned first aid in the training center, so she was ready to face any type of injury. Blood had never frightened her either, although it smelled worse in person and she didn't like how heavy it felt against her skin.

"Can someone help me with this?"

elegant

[gamemaker kelsier]

a v r i e l .

"We forgot to talk about Heaven
And leaving
And what it would mean
And how I would grieve"

"Blade" he whispers and rests a hand gently on her back so as not to startle her, "It's over."

His name still rings in his ears from when she screamed it only moments ago and there's a sheepish feeling there, an acknowledgment of his shortcomings that he can't quite look at. Avriel bends over the district Five tribute to retrieve a knife from the mutt's cheek. He wipes the goo off on the grass between them and tries to understand why he feels a need to be close to her.

It's like the calm before a storm, being near Blade, like lightening has struck already but will be back again and Avriel can't quite figure her out. All he knows is that she saved him today when she didn't have to. He squats down beside her, moments from asking her why when Ariel calls out asking for help.

Avriel stands then, unrolling a length of bandage in his hands. His arm aches but it's easier to focus on someone else rather than himself. Ariel's sweet and so pure, it makes him think of Duke. That want to protect her and Blade comes back in like the tide.

"Sorry about your head," he says and kneels in front of her, "It's worse than it seems though, headwounds just bleed easy, you'll be alright, Ari"

All Av has to clean the wound is his canteen from yesterday, so he pours a bit of the water out onto a scrap of bandage and uses it to sponge as much blood as he can off of her forehead. They all look like a mess, there's too much blood everywhere and he feels a little bit lightheaded himself. Still, he wraps the wound a moment later and leans back to look at his handiwork.

"You'll have all the Capitolites wrapping bandages around their heads to copy your new look," he says, a smile tugging at his lips.

[does maint things ayy]
[picks up Bundle of Firewood, 15ft bandages, Machete (Sword), Rope]

[tick 12a / calla]

A R E T O

► ► ►

Areto wipes the mess of guts from her spear when they settle away from the mutt's corpses. She had tied a strip of bandage off around her bicep to stop the bleeding until it could be treated properly, then pulled her hair back again and went over her weapon methodically, cleaning it with a careful hand that only came from years of maintenance.

There was nothing useful she could scavenge from the monsters, and something in her aches for killing them so wastefully, even if they were too dangerous to leave alive. She's just used to nature providing, that's all - if an animal is killed, then it's body is repurposed in full. Although, she supposes, that those things could hardly be called animals. Maybe the Earth's laws don't apply in a place like this.

Areto watches from her perch on a stray plank as Avriel dabs at the gash on Ariel's forehead. She'd kept in the corner of her eye during the fight, seen the way he had worked with Blade. Something in Areto unspools, just a little. She doesn't trust him yet, but she watches him tend to their ally's wounds with a begrudging sort of acceptance. His hands are gentle, and they're sure, and that's really all she can ask for.

She turns to Blade then, once she's assessed the other two, and finds her struggling on her own. She's suddenly thrown back into the training centre, sitting on the ground with Blade across from her.

"What's your name?" Areto had asked under the fluorescents, as she wove hemp into a fishing net, and when Blade answered, Areto had smiled.

“Blade?" She had repeated, and when the girl nodded, Areto winked at her. "A warrrior’s name.” She had said, and she meant it.

“Hey.” She stands now and puts her hands on Blade's shoulders, looking the girl in the eyes and squeezing carefully, “Don’t apologize. You should’ve seen yourself out there, you did great.”

Areto gestures to where Avriel is helping Ariel and then back, "We made it. We're all fine, see?"