if i did i menage with 'em {CF vs Riptide}

[napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ.]

julian le roux

There is happiness
Past the blood and bruise
Past the curses and cries
Beyond the terror in the nightfall

He pounced back the instant his spear tore flesh open. It was not deep enough to grievously wound, and he cursed himself loudly in his head for it. Ending Six’s life did not feel as cruel as whittling him down piece by tattered piece. He knew what must be done, but a Le Roux never reveled in another’s pain. They made their kills swiftly. For the other’s sake, Julian wished it'd be as quick as possible, as quick as—

Boom.

The world quavered. The cannon shattered through him. He searched for Love first, Waverly second, and after seeing both of them well, he moved his gaze across to—

“Oh,” he muttered. The spear had pierced messily through Evan’s chest, with bits of what appeared to be muscle twisted around it, and the blood couldn’t be washed away quickly enough. Waverly had done it. Waverly had put a spear in the boy’s heart. A girl from eight captured by the career alliance as bait, and what had she become? A killer, a warrior, and, in the end, a monster. Perhaps it wasn’t Love, but the arena itself that made them twisted and dark echoes of their past selves. As the day passed, all of them were becoming monstrous. They were the lion, the diamond, and the valkyrie.

He averted his gaze, returning it to Six and Thad. The two boys were monsters in their own right, too. To be monstrous in the arena seemed commonplace now, because to be a monster is to want for survival. What motivates all of them is to walk away from this fight battered but victorious. There was a crown calling for Julian’s name. “Just a few more seconds,” he urged Waverly, flicking away the blood and rainwater on his spear’s edge with a snap of his arm. In the haze of the downpour, he caught Love's eye and offered a quick but encouraging nod.

All of them cannot walk away from this fight.

“So you have a big family?” he asked Six, facing the other again, the question more to comfort the boy than anything else. “At least they’ll know that you fought bravely,” Julian said, with the briefest dip of his chin. “At least they’ll remember your grit.”

- Julian attacks Six with Firepoker (Spear) -

P6Olf6RFygspear

3137 -- Deep Gash on Left Calf -- 8.0 damage (Spear) + 1.0 damage (Strength)

Haunted by the look in my eyes
That would've loved you for a lifetime
Leave it all behind
And there is happiness


Lyrics: Happiness, Taylor Swift

spear

[kap]

There was bloodshed aplenty. I cut deep into Julian's chest, but not as deep as Waverly did into Evan's. The spear, as she threw it, pierced his heart.

Boom!

I felt a pain in my own heart, too. It was just in a different way than what Evan just experienced. He died from it, and I'd be living with the pain from it, at least until I was dead, too. For now, though, I had to keep living. I had to keep going, and it didn't seem like the fight was stopping anytime soon.

Six cut into Waverly's stomach, and Julian cut into Six's leg. They were all still trying to kill, so I knew I had to do the same. I stood by Six's side, determined to protect him and myself to the end. I felt grief over Evan's death, despite being so scared of him when he was alive. I wanted him to still be standing here, fighting by our side.

Although, no one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear.(1)

I felt terrified in that same moment. I wanted to run and hide. I wanted to curl up in a ball as the rain pounded down on me and just give up, but that wasn't an option. I would cry, but I'd be damned if I weren't standing and fighting back while I did.

"Let's fight our way home, Six," I said to my ally- my friend- no matter how much confidence I was truly lacking as the tears streamed down my face and my voice shook.

I had to have confidence. It was the only thing that I could use to save us right now, even if the confidence wasn't all that real.

Six was strong, too, but we needed each other right now. We needed to help each other and fight together. Three against two didn't exactly show the odds to be in our favor, but I sure as hell was going to try my ass off to get out of this fight with Six and I both still alive.

[(1) original quote by C.S. Lewis]

-----

table by Kaplan

[Thad Pepperwood attacks Waverly St. Amor with Fire Poker (spear)]
on91PD13oCspear
[3155 -- Shallow Cut on Forehead -- 4.5 damage]

spear

[pogue]

love bellisario

Love charges forwards, using the blunt end of the axe’s handle to knock Six out of his way before swinging the weapon down towards Evan. The metal slices through skin and muscle alike in a downwards arc, peeling back reds and blacks and blues with blood spilling out from the wound left in its wake. Little drops of red splatter across Love’s face, dripping from his eyelash into his vision and staining it red. He dances on feet that are pressed into cloud nine, jumping back out of the way of Evan’s weapon as he twirls the ace in his grip. The wood of the hilt burns in his grasp as he glances down at the new wound carved into Evan’s leg, eyes widening at the way he screams and falters on a weakened stance. The diamond tattoos on his chest burn along with it in mock approval, spreading into his veins and his heart until he can’t feel anything but somber bloodlust.

He’d prove himself one way or another, in monstrous bloodshed and abandoned humanity, no matter how much someone like Julian hated to see it. After all, he had no choice.

Boom.

He watches as metal embeds itself roughly into and through Evan’s chest, exploding out of his back in a disgusting spray of blood and guts. Torn shreds of muscle hang from the point of the fire poker and his jaw slacks as he stares, the echo of a cannon ringing in his mind over and over as his vision drifts from Evan’s corpse over to the tribute who’d launched the weapon.

His mouth closes into a somber smirk as his vision finally comes to rest on Waverly, catching her holding another spear in her grasp as the cannon’s echo finally comes to pass. ”Nice throw, Waverly!” He calls, fucked up sense of pride leaking into his voice as he does so, ”Keep it up and let’s finish this.”.

He throws a glance towards Julian, analyzing the way his facial expressions dance and swirl across his face in a hurricane of emotions. ”Oh…”, he mutters, and Love can’t help but clench his teeth at the way his voice sounds so laced in judgement at who they all were, at what they were all becoming. Am I the only monster here, Julian? He thinks, wants to say, but he bites back the words as he stares at a boy he can’t help but care for, no matter how dead the heart in his chest has been left. Or do you just want to believe that to make yourself feel better?

He’s Julian’s scapegoat, something the boy can look towards as an example of what he’ll never become. But they’re both holding bloody weapons, both aiming to hurt, both monsters in this fight and killers in the war. His heart aches in a hollow chest and he hates it, trying desperately to bite it down as his ally nods at him in encouragement. He returns it as he adjusts the axe in his grip, turning back towards their remaining opponents as Six speaks.

"My older brother Lock said God will take me home. I trust him."

And Love can’t help but scoff at the way Six sounds so hopeful, at the way the boy trusts so completely in something so false. Six should know better than anyone to trust no one but himself in a place like this, just like Love had told him in between fluttering heartbeats and the static of a voice recording.

”There’s no God in here, Six. Just ask Evan.”

His voice is dripping in a bloodlust engrained so deep into his veins that he could never get rid of it, no matter how much the ghosts haunt his dreams and kill him over and over in a cage of his own making. He wonders if Evan will join them in reckless abandon, if his cannon will ring in the back of his mind until it turns his brain into nothing but dust and dirt.

”Fine. Go home then.” He says simply at Thad’s weakened encouragement, swinging his axe towards him.

[Love attacks Thad; Axe]


7CZqd4|rWhaxe


[SC — 3.5]

axe

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

waverly st. amor

It took only a moment.

A single moment and they were both gone. Emie. Chad.

Another moment, a blink of an eye, and Evan was gone too.

She wanted to scream. As soon as the fire poker left her hands, as soon as it made the sickening thud as it impaled his chest and the loud boom of the canon that accompanied it. Waverly wanted to let out a horrifying scream, but instead she bit her lip so hard that she could taste the iron of her blood in her mouth and tears welled in her eyes just enough to blur the image of the dead boy on the ground in front of her.

Two.

That's how many bodies she helped put into the ground. Two people dead by her hands. Two people that maybe should have killed her first, but somehow she prevailed. She may have only killed two people, but how many other did she lose along the way?

How were they supposed to recognize her when she could barely recognize herself?

Her feet turned to stone and her blood turned to ice as she stared at the boys broken and bloodied body. His eyes were lifeless, as if the person inside him never even existed in the first place. She couldn't move, she couldn't speak, she couldn't even blink as his eyes stared back at hers. Waverly was finally brought back to the present when Love called out to her.

”Nice throw, Waverly! Keep it up and let’s finish this.” She opened her mouth to speak, but only an odd croaking noise came out. She took a moment to clear her throat before trying again. "Th-thanks," but her voice was still ragged and rough and sounded like it came from a body that wasn't hers.

“Just a few more seconds,” rang out Julian's voice next.

"Can we maybe hurry it up a bit? I'm starting to feel a bit woozy."

Regardless of all her blood loss she was starting to gain her confidence back and some feeling back in her legs, but it was a second too late. The two opposing weapons came crashing down. She dodged out of the way but not quick enough. They both cut into her skin and she grunted in pain. The world spun around her as the last of her blood began to pour onto the ground.

"My older brother Lock said God will take me home. I trust him."

"Trust only reaches so far," she muttered.

Just one more moment.

And maybe she would be gone too.

( waverly attacks six ; firepoker (javelin) )
dhuMNZFNidjavelin
( sc on stomach - 4.0 )

javelin

[Deleted]

He was overwhelmed. He couldn't take this anymore. It was all too much to handle. Evan was dead and they were all skipping past it like it never happened. One moment he was right next to them, living, breathing, and fighting. Now his body was still and lifeless. Part of Six wandered if he was cold yet.

The shaking got worse, like a leaf in a tornado. That's all Six was, a little leaf. He was supported by Thad, his branch. But a little leaf can only take so much and Cabin Fever was a tornado he was trapped in. He was ready to be ripped apart by the sheer force of their winds. But, tattered and beaten, he stayed together. At least for now.

He glanced at Evan again and in the chaos he went over and gently closed the boys eyes. Maybe it was so Evan could be at rest. Or maybe it was to grant Six some sort of comfort. Either way, he knew if he survived this fight that Evan would be haunting his dreams as well as his waking hours like Winger O'Malley and Emerson Le Roux had been.

Whenever he saw a blade glint in the sunlight, he saw Emerson. Even now, he saw Emerson looking over Julians shoulder. And in the shadows, in the corner of his eyes, he saw Winger O'Malley. In the stars of the night sky, he saw her looking down upon him, judging him. He wondered if one day he would join her in the stars.

But when he went to try to put Evan to rest the best he could, he felt the metal of a blade against his stomach. He moved out of the way a bit too late and was left with a shallow cut. This added to the feeling of it all being overwhelming. Ever since the bloodbath he was in constant pain. He just wanted the pain to end. He let out a loud sob as the spear pierced his skin for what seemed like the millionth time.

He could barely see through the tears and the rain, but he wasn't going to give up no matter how much he wanted to. He promised Fly he was going to try his hardest to come home, and he couldn't break that promise. Not now. Julian mentioning his family made him have a pang in his chest. He missed them. And Thad had a family to go back to as well.

He had to try. He summoned up all the strength he could muster, and tried to attack Waverly one more time. In a way, he felt hopeless. What was some farmboy who hadn't even turned sixteen yet going to do to trained killers and a girl who had just taken a life right in front of him? He didn't belong here. He belonged in the wheat fields of Eleven. He was a leaf best suited for a gently blowing breeze, not this.

-----

table by Kaplan

[ six o'malley attacks waverly st. amor with a machete (sword) ]

-

[ deep gash on right thigh - 8.0 + 1.0 damage ]

KcmTFAKUtnsword

sword

[napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ.]

julian le roux

There is happiness
Past the blood and bruise
Past the curses and cries
Beyond the terror in the nightfall

Filler bc I'm feeling a little sick tonight. ♡

> He nodded at Waverly. Even when bruised and wounded, there was mettle to her bones. He could not help but see pieces of Emerson in her grit. She would have loved her.

> “I'm afraid we're running out of time, gentlemen," he says, nodding at the other two as he flicks away the thickest of the blood on his spearhead. “Shall we?”

- Julian attacks Six with Firepoker (Spear) -

ThnRnLRmSdspear

X

Haunted by the look in my eyes
That would've loved you for a lifetime
Leave it all behind
And there is happiness


Lyrics: Happiness, Taylor Swift

spear

[kap]

Filler because I'm busy tonight

-Thad breaks down sobbing like crazy
-Doesn't know what to say
-Looks at Waverly, Love and Julian with tears blurring his vision
-Runs away as fast as he possibly can

-----

table by Kaplan

[Thad Pepperwood flees]

[pogue]

fillah mignon baby

love flee

[napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ.]

julian le roux

There is happiness
Past the blood and bruise
Past the curses and cries
Beyond the terror in the nightfall

It all happened far too quickly. Everything behind the spear-thrust, the strength, the anger, the pity, all vanished when he felt the shock of impact as steel pierced flesh.

And he forgot how to breathe in that moment. He stood in the rain, thunderstruck, with Six O'Malley's throat on the end of his spear like a lamb skewered to death. He blinked and suddenly, it was Emerson in his place. He blinked, and there was Emerson in his place. He saw her, relived her death, and gasped as all sense stormed through him with a thunderous wrath, forcing him to twist the spear out. Six stumbled, mumbled, and then crumbled.

He heard footsteps on the mud – Thad – and then the distant thunder in the sky, but his gaze was drawn to the blood that had begun to pool beneath them, blooming like a flower in passionate flourish. It smelled sickly, and yet it was necessary, but it was also undoubtedly cruel. I won, he thought numbly, but for what? 

Too sharply, he understood what the price of the crown was.

“Blood,” Julian whispered as he took a step back, felt mud pull at his shoes, and crashed onto the rain-slicked ground, trembling uncontrollably as his gaze leveled with the boy’s corpse. The price of the crown was blood, and this was the first of many tokens. He'd have to kill them all, relive it all over again, and Ripred, he was sick, he was – doubling over and releasing his sick onto the mud.

The cannon shattered through every hollow of him. He had done it. He had killed his first person, and it would only be a stepping stone for more. Against honor and bravery, he’d chosen this, allowed himself to become a monster. The boy king entered the abyss and will emerge no longer a boy, or a king. His innocence laid bleeding shoulder to shoulder with Six. He was no longer Julian, but something darker, hungry, and twisted at the heart.

It felt like an unbecoming. It felt like a homecoming.

After all this time, Julian had finally become the lion, cruel, ruthless, and yet he was here, mourning for the sheep.

Haunted by the look in my eyes
That would've loved you for a lifetime
Leave it all behind
And there is happiness


Lyrics: Happiness, Taylor Swift