i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me ; CvG

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d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris
RP Tutor

3,275 POSTS

Pronouns: he/him
last seen May 9, 2024 3:54:21 GMT -5

i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me ; CvG Nov 25, 2021 0:07:08 GMT -5

Quote

Post by d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris on Nov 25, 2021 0:07:08 GMT -5

cecily deerling v. the glitch ;

trigger warning:
mercy killing,
skip to line break

fatefully,
i tried to pick my battles
'til the battle picked me
— taylor swift, long story short

"Hey, C?" His hand folds itself over her fingers — voice like daybreak. Warm in the place of his cold skin. She meets his gaze, watching as the fire is reflected in his eyes. Even as the color threatens to dim, the flame only grows brighter. So bright it could swallow everything. Rewind, and she's flung back against the earth as it all explodes, and he's still okay. They all are. There's still a chance.

Gavin swears that Cecily can do anything. He did, and does, and maybe he would have always. Now half of their alliance, their family, is dead. Love becomes ash. His smile is like hope, like a blade in a wound that will never close. She loves him. He loves her. She failed.

And this is what they're left with.

"I told you so."

Her gun laughs at that, and his cannon follows shortly.

His head lurches back, hand falling to the side, and then it all stops. His eyes stay closed, and his chest doesn't rise, and it doesn't fall, either. Nothing. Just the stillness, and the echo of it. She's forced to watch as he becomes frozen in time, a constellation not yet made of stars. A tragedy not yet named.

She stares down at his lifeless face as all the sounds rip through her, fingertips trembling against hollow cheeks — pale, rose petals meeting frost. Feeling the warmth leave his body is something that will always haunt her. Like a pistol firing before dawn. Like her best friend saying he would die for her. Like he did.

Like they all did.

^{part one}

When she starts to scream, her head is resting against his chest. It's like her agony shatters inside of her throat, voice breaking at the edges, willing so desperately for time to forgive her, to take a few steps back, to just let her hear them again. See them. Feel them. It's cruel to read the ending of a story that's still being written.

She has been robbed, and yet all of her treasures are clutched within her own fists. The blame is hers, selfishly. Always. Pulling away from Gavin, she stares at the burning wreckage, lip trembling and gasping for breath. She struggles to find words to voice her grief. her shame.

So she keeps screaming, and crying, hands shaking as she stands up, running through her hair. She feels like she's about to detonate, and that just makes her stomach flip, makes the stinging in her eyes shift to burning, stumbling so close to the fire that she can feel the heat of it. Nearly enough to choke her.

They'd want her to be kinder to herself — but then they're not here, are they? She grapples with that realization. That the hope has to die with them. For the girl who always has a way out, she watches as the sun starts to rise into the sky, glitching across the burnt scar where the flames still rage, and she knows there's nowhere else to go.

Knows there's nothing more terrifying than herself.

And when the figure emerges from the forcefield, she meets it with all of her fury.

^{( ending will be expanded in post two )}

( cecily uses tar & flint,
attacks the glitch
/ flaming spear )

_OQjEiKsqGspear
~~miss~~

1-50
+2

accuracy | day six

spear
8 + 1 strength (9)

spear·1-50·spear

Last Edit: Nov 25, 2021 21:13:58 GMT -5 by d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris

all my girls got their lace and their crimes

sbeeg
Retired Staff

3,503 POSTS
Pronouns: she/they
last seen Nov 1, 2023 5:54:37 GMT -5

i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me ; CvG Nov 25, 2021 20:58:29 GMT -5

Quote

Post by sbeeg on Nov 25, 2021 20:58:29 GMT -5

To resist it is useless
It is useless to resist it

Honeycutt sprints down the hallway all decor discarded. Sweat drips down his brow as he slides into the control room, his shoulders weighted and his mind a storm.

"She did what?" he gasps going to the main screen as some intern stutters through an explanation but it's clear on the screen. Just like at the Reaping, Cecily Deerling tried to run, attempted to ruin the Games.

Anger flares in his gut just as strong as his nerves. He wasn't going to let some runt from District Five ruin his career, not when it took him this long to reach the top.

"Call Layton and Danny. Now."

Honeycutt slides into the chair at the control panel and begins typing frantically, pulling up tricks and tools. Anything that would get her to shut up and stay inside the Arena. There's a prototype, a kind of drone that the junior interns are developing. It's in its infancy and is in no way ready for the main stage. That's fine, if it looks bad they'll cut the footage. That's one thing Aloysius has learned, everything can be fixed in post.

The Glitch

It pulls away from the smooth screen of the Arena walls. It's a blob for a moment, shapeless and confused. Then it's programming kicks in and it forms the silhouette of a human. It has no skin to wear, only the screen it was birthed from. It shows the stormy skies overheard, then the thick foliage near the ground. It tries again and again to blind in but that is not its goal anymore. It stops trying, displaying merely static that ripples over its skin.

It has no eyes, but it is controlled by those who see everything. It has no mouth but unseen speakers hidden in the ground speak for it.

The mutt moves forward, its foot slamming against Gavin Hale's skull and shoving it into the mud below it.

Her spear stabs into its leg. The screen parts but no blood spills out. It shows off the interior of nano tech and wires btu does not reclose, the fire burning at the edges of the delicate screen keep it from reforming.

If this mutt felt pain, that might have stopped it.

"Cecily Deerling!" The voice seems to come from the heavens. It echoes around them, whispering through the trees and crackling through the walkie talkies from the living and the dead. "When will you learn?"

A button is pressed miles away and the mutt lunges.

[The Glitch attacks Cecily Deerling]
GWc9m7mD9tknife
[Deep Gash on Back of Head -- 9.0 damage]

Lyrics from Comfort Eagle by Cake

knife

Last Edit: Nov 25, 2021 20:58:51 GMT -5 by sbeeg

d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris
RP Tutor

3,275 POSTS

Pronouns: he/him
last seen May 9, 2024 3:54:21 GMT -5

i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me ; CvG Nov 25, 2021 23:34:31 GMT -5

Quote

Post by d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris on Nov 25, 2021 23:34:31 GMT -5

cecily deerling v. the glitch ;

fatefully,
i tried to pick my battles
'til the battle picked me
— taylor swift, long story short

Is this what fear looks like?

She gazes down at Gavin's corpse — her sleeping hope, never waking. The fire is still burning, and she can hardly bring herself to face the truth that falls from the sky like black snow. It covers everything. Wherever she looks, she sees a ruin of her own making. Her eyes are bloodshot, a streak of red across her face, tears sliding down her cheeks.

Grief, in this light, looks a lot like violence.

Her hatred is a dagger in her stomach. She forged it.

When she hears the heavy thud, turning to face the mass of shimmering material pooling across the earth, it's not her first reaction to be afraid. There's a tired frustration in her expression, biting down on an inhale as a humanoid figure materializes from the substance. Like bones cracking into place, a spine that stretches beyond itself.

Maybe it's better to just stop breathing. She grinded six bullets to dust, but who had that last bullet really been meant for? It's a hard question to ask, and a terrifying one to answer.

The machine takes a daunting step in her direction, and with a long exhale, she makes her choice. It seems to blink through different phases of camouflage, projecting forests and clouds and water, failing to blend into the inferno raging around them. It's a fragment.

It's alone.

Familiar.

There's a cold understanding in the way she slowly moves backwards, lowering herself to the ground to grab her spear where it's been placed, fingers looping through the strap of her bag. In the time that can be afforded between its footfalls, she takes her stand. Even when she has nothing left, she's not sure how to give up. What else can they do? She cheated herself.

She grabs the jar of tar, and gracelessly, she smashes it against the side of her weapon. She pours it along the length of steel, careful to leave space for her fingers. Right as she strikes the edge of flint across the surface, the glitching robot closes in. It regards her with indifference, and some form of quiet rage.

Fire reflects in her eyes, driving the point of her spear through its calf, watching as the screen armor splits evenly, electricity crackling within the wound. The hiss of burning wires, a destructive heart exposed. Every beat an eruption. She can feel the ache in her chest.

Distancing herself, she looks on as the machine ignores her attack, crackling with energy in an endless display of static. In flashes, she almost swears that she make out the faces of her allies in the pixels, terrible memories hiding in beautiful colors. All of the good things have sharp edges now. She's not sure how she'll ever feel safe again.

"Cecily Deerling!" The ringing in her ears is one thing, but the endless echo of voices is another. She can hear a distorted masculine voice, blaring from a hundred invisible sources. Her walkie talkie wails inside of her backpack. A cold, threatening statement, spoken to her as clearly as possible. "When will you learn?"

She opens her mouth to spit out a hateful response, now realizing that she is facing the Capitol directly. But her fury is met head on by a clawed hand, striking at her with such speed that lurching to the side is only barely enough to dodge a fatal hit. Her vision swims, a hot wave of pain spreading across the base of her skull, dripping down the back of her neck.

Her knees catch the ground, shoulders squaring against the impact and a harsh gasp under her breath. She can only wonder who she's talking to. Part of her really doesn't care. She holds tight to her spear, glancing down at the flames still burning strong. In the worst ending, it just ends. That's all it really is. A black screen after a lifetime of suffering.

No one applauds. She'll never deserve that.

Rising to her feet, she brandishes her strength, and her regrets, and she gives everything. All the tiny, worthless pieces that remain of her. She's a failure. A cheat. A coward. If they want her dead, then let them take her by the throat and make the pain go away. There's no reason to run when the monster finally catches up with you.

She'll chase them, too. Her nightmares are hers to deal with.

"Listen to me." The robot expresses nothing, standing firm with early rays of sunlight spilling over its shoulders. She has nowhere else to run. All that's left is the kingdom ahead, and she will storm it. She will take what is hers. The lost memories are comforted by static, lifetimes beginning and ending between each glitch. She looks into their eyes.

It's a mask. It doesn't fool her.

Her enemy is known, and her fire still burns.

"I'm coming for you."

She aims for the head of the beast.

( cecily uses tar & flint,
attacks the glitch
/ flaming spear )

tgc9ue8Z_Fspear
9.5 damage + 1 strength (10.5)

1-50
+4

spear·1-50

Last Edit: Nov 25, 2021 23:36:55 GMT -5 by d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris

all my girls got their lace and their crimes