Desiderata [LAP v. Chup]
Mar 3, 2013 15:10:16 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2013 15:10:16 GMT -5
[/color] Even now he wondered about his allies; what great use did Benat provide? He could make a fire, but his fighting skills were remiss. And dead weight was just that; he looked to the stars then, his eyes still full of sleep. His stomach rumbled. Visions of cakes and pies had swum through his head, now a distant memory.•••
Death on two legs
You're tearing me apart
Death on two legs
You never had a heart of your own,
•••
Night settled into his bones as he sat on the edge of shoreline where the waves broke. Cooler now than in the heat of the hot sun, Benat Izar had put on his shorts once again—more out of modesty for the ladies in his company than anything else—but still dripped wet from his particularly long swim in the lake. There was too much calm for him, too much quiet for all the explosions and bloodshed earlier. He’d watched his allies die, burnt up and cut to pieces by the other competitors. At first it’d been a shock to his system—he should’ve felt less, considering how long they’d been together—but there was something about the speed with which they died had rattled poor Benat’s head to the core. He’d distanced himself from them; he’d tried as hard as he not to think of their families back home (and by extension, his own). But the evening spent with Essence, and having lain next to her—he’d felt his mind twist into knots to explain just what he’d felt.
He slept with a restlessness he hadn’t faced since the night prior to entering the arena. Visions of fire and faces of the dead haunted him; though he had no blood on his hands, he saw all of the fallen tributes struck down and moaning over their deaths. The gurgling of their cries in the air, the blood collecting in their throats and leaving them without life. He had nowhere to turn, there was only the endless blackness of his mind and the faces of the dead to comfort him. He woke in a trembling fit of sweat, the anthem rattling him from his spot along the edge of the shore.ButtercupsEzra’s name came first, followed by William’s, and at last Essence. He let out a sigh as the anthem faded, and he was left to think of those that remained. Just eleven—besides himself—and he might even get the chance to see his brothers and family again.
He went through the list again in his mind: District One, Emerald and Viridian, both of them he hadn’t seen since the bloodbath; Cricket, the girl with the twelve; River and Noah, no doubt holding on as were the other careers; Elodie, still alive; the Keenis, burning bright; Owen, the one they’d nearly killed; Ivy, the one that had wound up finding and joining them—neither wanting bloodshed and finding safety in numbers they’d let her; then, besides Benat, only Asunder. Half of what they’d started with, and fairly close to the end. If only he could feel comfortable about his own odds.
What sense did any of it make, anyway? Since he’d stepped onto the stage in District Eleven, he’d never believed that he could carry on to the end. He was just two tributes away from the farthest any district eleven male had ever gotten in the games in recent memory: Denver of the 59th finished tenth. Any further and the territory would be up to Benat to explore. And honestly, who would have guessed Benat wouldn’t wind up with a knife in his neck or an arrow in his eye? There were little miracles protecting him, or, at the least, dumb luck. It was the only smile he could muster then, thinking of the lucky rabbit’s paw in his pocket. He wondered how the rest of them could be so brave and so certain of their future when he was almost afraid of his own shadow.
He kept watch of the sky as the others slept, listening to the waves as they crashed along the shore. Life sure was confusing.[/color] Benat readily admitted. With who lived and who died, certainly: there wasn’t much rhyme or reason in the games. He’d come to realize this. But in the same vein—in the cool wind of the evening—Benat Izar began to turn over just what the universe meant: were they all just random points colliding with someone, or was there order? It didn’t feel as though fate had anything to do with it; why would he be selected when there could have been other, better able tributes from his district? And that he’d just begun to open up to Essence, only to have her snatched away… it felt as though life wasn’t fair. And he didn’t understand it, not one bit.
But then… he supposed that maybe, in the grand scheme of things, he wasn’t meant to understand. There were a great many stars in the sky, maybe more than people in Panem. They could have had people looking back at him, thinking the same—how and why life was the way it was. And he was the sand on the beach, infinitesimally small and unimportant. But that’s just the way it is, [/color] Benat supposed. In the sea of stars and the brush of another breeze, Benat brought his hand to his face. I’m just a little piece, that’s part of a big, big universe.[/color] And he pondered over the thought: without the grain of sand, or blade of grass, or drop of water… well, life wasn’t the same, was it? And so many of them wanted to play big, to be big, to be the best… what if life was just meant to be lived?
And maybe… [/color]Benat brought his knees to his chest. Maybe the universe is unfolding exactly as it should.[/color] Maybe the idea of fate—maybe all that was supposed to happen would, no matter what he wanted it to be.[/color] It was a thought that stayed with him until morning, when they walked to the great expanse of the Golden Pyramid. Life would continue to march on,[/color] He reasoned. Which meant that he had to keep up.[/color]
[Benat attacks the Chupacabra with his blowgun by blowing a blowdart at it]
[dice=200+4000]
[result:4118-- Miss -- 0.0 damage]
[dice=200+4000]
[result:4118-- Miss -- 0.0 damage]
He didn't notice the humming, not until it was too late. He was more upset about the miss to care. Of course, that was until one of the leeches latched onto him, and he let out a shriek.
[dice=5]
[result: 4 x 2 = 8 damage]
[/center][result: 4 x 2 = 8 damage]
[/justify][/blockquote][/size][rand=5870432963129133818640742683783268603344983421278819321012124419]
