Round One - Yellow | Hunger Games: The RPG

Tom
Moderator

5,218 POSTS
Pronouns: He/Him
last seen Nov 19, 2024 9:23:58 GMT -5

OowoO

Round One - Yellow May 24, 2022 12:54:46 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Tom on May 24, 2022 12:54:46 GMT -5

Every problem is supposed to have a solution. An answer to be found and conceived by those around them who can find it. Azon Césaire had always found every solution to a problem. Built his own circuitry in order to solve the unsolvable. Shocked a hundred people in a war where death only won and the bodies piled higher and higher. Appliances ripped apart and gutted for the sake of solving the world's puzzles, but he's never been ready for the largest puzzle he's been thrown in. An endless expanse of sand, an endless sea of emotions that wash over them, but he's not afraid. No, he's never been afraid of anything. their brain works too hard to be afraid of the illogical creations of their own mind. Everything is solvable. All it takes them is some analysis, some caffeine, and the brain of a boy who's got enough intelligence that he can't quite get all of it out.

Potential is what they always called them. Potential for a world that'll advance into a new one. A heavy breath upon their lips as he can feel the heat already burning around them. A heavy heart as he looks for the solutions to this illogical game that made no sense. Pieces of a puzzle lingering in the banners, the walls, the three others across the way. Except, the answers don't come to them. Instead, there's a spear pointed at him from another. The girl from home asking if they know one another. Their eyes focusing on her as he frowns, recognizing the field of rubbish around them once. The scavenging of parts where he would run into kids, burned by the electrical scars of Three. She had been there once. Long before the world was done with silly wars. Threats held heavy upon her lips as he had been frustrated, but also nervous. Fear isn't something he felt, but if there was a moment where he should have, it was then.

Except, there's a change. The mentioning of the Fifth games, the one where the creatures had ripped children apart, piece by piece. Azon had watched quietly, fidgeting with his laptop while the screens showed them die. Panem wasn't a place where kids could live in peace; Azon had learned that quick enough since the games started. Questions of why the games were needed, but he held them with a quiet look. The world spinning around them as his own hands typed the code to solve for the lightbulbs in their old home to be rewired to the light switch. All of those teenagers, dead in the field of sand like they would be. A laugh almost wants to escape from their throat, but instead, he can hear the girl from home. The one from the scrapyard he'd take from. "Yeah, nah-uh, there aint no friggin way that I am letting some animal tear me to shreds."

The suggestion wasn't meant to be like the Fifth. No, he had made the suggestion to take out the other three across the way who've started to cause blood to spill. Azon's eyes focusing on the red mixing with the sand, knowing the rusted metal had to hurt. "Lets skip the small talk, shall we?" Their eyes look up as he can feel the rational starting to leave, he's not going to convince them quick enough. Damn their lack of social capabilities. Maybe their mother had always been right to try and get them out of the bunker and talk to the kids their own age across the way. "It'll be easier that way, you know, for all of us." Azon's eyes focusing on the rusted spear now pointed in their direction; glittering with the sun. A moment of silence before she continues; the lack of memory apparent. "Obviously nothing personal,"

Their voice desperately trying to reach out to her. "Hey! Hold on-" Blood drips from their arm; heavy and deep as the red mixes with the sand; creating gunk where his life once was. "You're just going to stab first and ask questions later? F-Finally decided you wanted to kill me now?" Pulling the spear from their own arm, the blood drips heavier; red across their forehead and eye, blinding in a way. "F-Fuck." The wound burns white with all of the sand. He's drifting through all the ways to escape this. Every solution muddled up like the wires of a circuit, ever connected, but not firing right. One of them is out of order and he can't figure out what to do next. Instead, Chant is the one to speak next. Reacting quicker than Azon ever could.

"I can respect that. Let's fight." Azon wants to scream. Their lungs filling with the current of frustration. An illogical solution to his own problem. The wound he's already got burning over and over again. An electrocution was never as bad as the burning from a wound like this. He is about to speak, but Chant from Ten is faster. "It's probably more honorable to go down to a human opponent than an animal, anyway. I've got enough respect for you both as of the moment that I'll fight you and not let them feed any of us to the crocodiles." Honorable? Human Opponent? Their eyes widen as he can feel the attacks were going to continue.

"W-We should work to kill the others! N-Not each other. You're both being illogical." A heaviness in their breath as he continues. "We don't have to fight one another. W-We could fight the others." Rational is out the window; their words are certainly there, but the spear hits just as hard, blood dripping from their own arm, cut so deep that he's certain it's over before it's even begun. A main artery cut into and he can feel the pain bursting forward; a flash of fire exactly like sparks sending straight through them. As he stumbles backwards; he feels themselves desperately reaching for something, someone, anything. No one is there. A father long lost to the war; never coming home. A mother alone in a district where people try to live on; the greatest minds to ever exist.

And finally, Azon, alone in an ocean of sand. A mistake already coming from their own calculations. A misplaced trust in their own head. Potential wasted in a matter of seconds. As he falls, the sky rings with that beautiful and yet disgusting color; the blue meant to show it's a nice day. A pretty place where there wasn't meant to be an illogical game. Executions, sure, but this game only lead to more questions. In the end, he wished to have created more, been more, see more, but it's too late. The world shifts from their view as the sky is filled to the brim with a brightness. A head slamming into metal on the way down as the pain washes over them.

Red spills around them. An ache in their chest as the sky rings blue and true. A fact of life that'll always exist. "Fuck." Azon's voice rings out one last time as the pain burns from their arms and head; a miscalculated step in the sand from surprise and it's all over. No more circuitry to rewire. No more equations to solve. No more code to write. All of their life has been one thing; wasted potential. An endless sea of mistakes that'd added up to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A name pulled from a bowl; an endless unlucky streak to always be stuck along.

Azon Césaire had always wanted to be bigger than themselves.

In the end, he was always meant to burn out.

A last spark snuffed out before the fire.

As the last breath comes over them;

Azon burns with one last discovery.

Peace.

[Azon takes 10 damage from requested damage by hitting his head on his own spear stuck in the sand on his way down.]

[The End of Azon Césaire]

Made by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]

marguerite harvard d2a (zori)
Veteran Member

1,258 POSTS

last seen Apr 5, 2024 7:56:12 GMT -5

🌻

Round One - Yellow May 24, 2022 20:48:39 GMT -5

Quote

Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on May 24, 2022 20:48:39 GMT -5

r u t h

In this quiet town
Salt of the land
Hard-working people, if you're in trouble
They'll lend you a hand
Here in this quiet town

Ruth hadn’t meant that they should’ve known each other. She reasoned four had to be the same size as eight, didn’t it? Or – well, she hadn’t really been sure, but it had to have at least enough people that it was more likely than not they wouldn’t have met one another before.

If they were willing enough to kill one another being from the same place and time, what would that have said about any of the other kids she was supposed to face? Ruth couldn’t say if it’d been the same for her if she’d been standing next to the boy she’d come with from eight. Even if he did seem the type to relish any sort of attention thrown at him, the type that lived as though he wore a technicolor dreamcoat, she’d have struggled to raise her spear at him.

She thought.

Ruth supposed she’d never really know now. She’d tell herself that all the years breathing in the word of Jehovah had left some sort of mark on her, that she was still the same girl that gave up the last of her plate to her sister, that kept quiet when told to hush, or had taken Clyde in when he’d been in trouble with his folks, because it was more important to be together even when what you had wasn’t enough.

It hadn’t stopped her from stepping right into the madness with each of the fours. She’d not the fortitude to contemplate suicide, to run herself through with a spear as though their lives were more important than her own.

A cannon sounded as she stood, and Ruth turned her head to the wall behind her.

Enough time that both the boy and the girl got their shots.

“Damn it,” Ruth grumbled out. She staggered back across the sand. There wasn’t time to get distracted by who might’ve died.

‘There is no love here’.

She twisted the spear between her palms.

Somehow, she doubted that.

“I don’t hate either of you, though.” Ruth spoke to the boy from four, “I don’t blame you, either. We’re just doing what we’re supposed to.”

Just as it’d been written, they followed the same path as almost all the others before them. And the next twenty, fifty, eighty years – they’d see the hundreds of bodies pile to the thousands, all because they were doing what was expected, fighting between the best of the worst choices.

“If you want to be a doctor. Or whatever it is.” Ruth started to take aim with her spear. “You’ve got to sacrifice to get what you want.”

elegant

ruth attacks bonnibal illy d4f with her spear
nJPqwBNKxfspear
[+0]

ruth attacks alexson knox d4m with her spear
spear
[+3.5]spear·spear

Last Edit: May 24, 2022 20:49:17 GMT -5 by marguerite harvard d2a (zori)

k!ah
Retired Staff

4,636 POSTS
Pronouns: She/Her
last seen Nov 19, 2024 4:03:09 GMT -5

#expensivetrash

Round One - Yellow May 25, 2022 2:14:07 GMT -5

Quote

Post by k!ah on May 25, 2022 2:14:07 GMT -5

My blade slices through the flesh of ten, barely scrapping the surface, but enough to cause a thin line of red to form. In the next breath I lung for Azon, the tip of my spear burying itself into the meaty flesh of his arm. Almost instantly drops of blood begin to rain down to the sandy earth beneath my feet and I waited for a wave of nausea to hit me, making my knees weak. But as I watched the blood begin to pool, I feel nothing. No remorse. No regret. It was concerning, maybe the years incarceration desensitising me more than I cared to admit.

"You're just going to stab first and ask questions later? F-Finally decided you wanted to kill me now?" Azon gasps, griping the end of my spear to rip it from his arm.

His question has my brows drawing closer together. "I- What the hell you talking about-" thats when it hits me, the memory from when seemed like a lifetime ago. He was a thief, rummaging around my junkyard looking for scraps to mostly like sell to the highest bidder. Rosa and I had found him with his head burred in the trash, we had demanded he rack off, my rusted knife and Rosa weather spade ready to smash his skull in. It wouldn't have been the first time threats had been thrown at unsuspecting trespasser, usually enough to have them fleeing with their tail tucked between their legs.

But not this fool, he had insisted that all he wanted was some trash to build something, mumbling on and on about shit that I couldn't understand. It hadn't taken Rosa and I long to decide that he was harmless, leaving him to search the yard, mumbling under his breath.

"Alright, I can respect that. It's probably more honorable to go down to a human opponent than an animal, anyway." Ten's voice interrupts my thoughts, his blade quickly following, piercing my shoulder, the crowds cheer drowning out the growl of pain that escapes my lips. Son of a bitch, I groan as he rips it free almost instantly, sending waves of fire through my shoulder, before turning his aim to Azon.

"W-We should work to kill the others!" Azon begs, a desperation in his voice, a tremor in his hand as bloodless takes hold. "N-Not each other," he gasp, his eyes darting between the two of us. "We don't have to fight one another. W-We could fight the others." He tries to reason, but it falls on deaf ears, Ten lunging spear aimed for his chest.

Azon responds too slow, the spear buries itself into the meaty flesh of his arm.

Bright red blood begins to spurt from the wound in time to the beat of his racing heart. He stumbles, reaching for support and I quickly step back out of reach, watching as he falls. He hits the earth with a loud thud, but it's not the air escaping his lungs that causes the curse to gush from his lips. It seemed that his spear caught his fall, blood soaking into the sand, and the crowd is losing their fucking minds.

A smirk to pulls back my lips as I tear my gaze form Azon's body. It felt like a shield, my only defence against the fuckers who taunted me on a daily basis. "Didn't think you had it in you, if I was being honest, Ten," I look at him with raised brows, "how does it feel, to be a killer?" It was a weak attempt to get into his head, if she was going to make it out of this, she was going to need to try harder. I needed to scare him, cause him to doubt himself, because people who lacked confidence were prone to errors. "I could do it fast, ya know. Like him," I nod at Azon. "Or we could do it slowly, painfully. Up to you."

attacks chant
DGHJvu1x1_spear
[block]

spear

Last Edit: May 25, 2022 2:14:43 GMT -5 by k!ah

✮ UPAT ✮

kap
Retired Staff

6,037 POSTS
Pronouns: they/them
last seen Jul 4, 2024 19:59:43 GMT -5

trans rights are human rights <3

Round One - Yellow May 25, 2022 7:50:12 GMT -5

Quote

Post by kap on May 25, 2022 7:50:12 GMT -5

The other boy, Azon, fell when I struck him, and before I knew it, he was dead. He'd been begging for his life moments before, only to crash and fall onto his own spear after I dug my weapon into his flesh.

"Oh, shit," I said under my breath as nausea bubbled up inside my stomach.

Then, the girl speaks up.

"Didn't think you had it in you, if I was being honest, Ten," she says to me before asking, "how does it feel, to be a killer?"

Before I could say anything, though, she tells me she could kill me quickly or slowly. She makes sure I know the slow way would be painful. I wasn't just going to give in, though. Despite every fiber of my being telling me that I should vomit right then, I caught what was happening. My spear blocked hers as her weapon came down at me in an attack, aiming to kill. I'm not sure how my reflexes got to be that quick, but as of the moment, they'd probably just saved my life.

"How does it feel to be a killer, you're asking?" I repeat back to her. "I guess if I work hard enough, you'll never know."

It was a rude, snarky response, but I wasn't feeling right in the head in that moment. I'd just killed a guy, and this girl was still insistent on trying to kill me in return. It wasn't a revenge thing, though. She just wanted to live, and I understood that: so did I. That's why I was fighting in the first place. I was fighting to live.

As I went to lunge toward her, I felt my foot fold under me. There was a snap. Fuck. I swore rather loudly, tears forming in my eyes. Did I break it? Damn that hurt. I had to stay standing, though. I couldn't buckle now. So, I limped toward my opponent and I aimed my weapon.

-----

NOTES:
Chant breaking his foot is where the 10 damage I requested for him is coming from.

WORDS:
322

Chant attacks Maya
sn0GDvO4auspear
[sc 3.5]

spear

Last Edit: May 25, 2022 7:50:35 GMT -5 by kap

umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]
Administrator

7,903 POSTS
last seen Nov 21, 2024 0:46:02 GMT -5

— 🥀 —

Round One - Yellow May 25, 2022 11:41:22 GMT -5

Quote

Post by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars] on May 25, 2022 11:41:22 GMT -5

They speak of love, and of hate. They never mention those who put us here.

Again, the Capitol wins.

Again,
and again,
and again.

I say nothing, doe eyes peering through the tears at the rusted tip of my spear, now wet with blood. I say nothing, pouty lip quivering despite my best efforts at keeping it still. There is nothing left. There is- there is nothing to be won.

My chest aches in a way that I know can only be my heart breaking. Selfishly, admittedly. I grieve myself. I miss myself. I reach into the future without me in it, and I miss myself. That way Aunt Maggie doesn't have to. I feel the blame of it, of the permanent change, sothat my mom doesn't feel guilty.

"If you want to be a doctor. Or whatever it is. You’ve got to sacrifice to get what you want."

She addresses me. My mouth hangs open, aghast. Sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

"Sacrifice?!"

I stutter, trying to form a sentence aloud as I'm doing so in my head.

"Look around! Sacrifice? I've sacrificed enough! This isn't-"

I roll my eyes with indignance, a frustrated growl escaping me. Constant studying. No social life. Extra credit classes. Summer courses. Night classes. A dead father. A drunk for a mother. A hopeful aunt. Being here, for goodness sake! Absolutely nothing to show for it.

I've sacrificed enough.

My eyes dart between the two of them, and I wonder which will be the one to kill me.

"No more."

[bonnie attacks ruth, spear]
8Opy6UdIQXspear
[0]

[bonnie attacks alex, spear]
spear
[9]

spear·spear

Last Edit: May 25, 2022 11:48:26 GMT -5 by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]

^{I AM A GARDEN OF BLACK AND RED AGONIES}

ryan
Advertiser

2,989 POSTS

Pronouns: he/him
last seen Nov 20, 2024 20:34:06 GMT -5

over the moon, where all the wild things are

Round One - Yellow May 25, 2022 20:58:03 GMT -5

Quote

Post by ryan on May 25, 2022 20:58:03 GMT -5

This just hurts, and I can barely catch my breath as I feel rusty spears poke through my body. I wonder what my mother would have thought. Obviously, she mustve raised a son that was just too soft for the art of murder.

She probably would be shaking her head right now. I can understand why she left.

I stagger through my breaths, tasting sunlight and trying to make everything last just for another moment. My vision is blurry, but that is okay. I accept that.

I am okay with dying at this point, there is no reason to fight it.

However, I feel like my district partner has become slightly more unhinged, and the girl from eight, Ruth, has become to drill that has put her on her last leg. I laugh just a little bit, listening to Ruth egg her on as she seems to react poorly.

"Looks like little miss over achiever cant handle the cost of living." She has made it clear that she knows how to use a spear, she really is a quick study.

"I might die here, but Ruth..." I am tired, I do not see myself making it out. "Make sure she doesnt make it out of here either." I affirm this aspiration. "Her hands were made for killing obviously, she would have been a shitty doctor anyway."

There is no kindness left in me.

"Mark my words."

I feel labored breaths coming up as I pick up my spear and stab it at both of them.

I will not go out without a fight.

My mother taught me better.

Alexson Knox D4M attacks Bonnibal Illy D4F with Spear
cqlXzxED5pspear
[+9]

Alexson Knox D4M attacks Ruth Baran D8F with Spear
spear
[+8]

spear·spear

Last Edit: May 25, 2022 20:58:58 GMT -5 by ryan

marguerite harvard d2a (zori)
Veteran Member

1,258 POSTS

last seen Apr 5, 2024 7:56:12 GMT -5

🌻

Round One - Yellow May 25, 2022 23:34:11 GMT -5

Quote

Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on May 25, 2022 23:34:11 GMT -5

r u t h

In this quiet town
Salt of the land
Hard-working people, if you're in trouble
They'll lend you a hand
Here in this quiet town

They could not know one another, the sacrifices each had made to stand in the hot sand and underneath the blaring sun. Ruth couldn’t know who had lost parents or siblings, had seen the other side of abuse, addiction, or any magnitude of neglect.

Her life had been secure as it could’ve been. Two parents with a business that scraped by each month. Work for her to keep her hands busy. Birthdays celebrated with a touch of homemade cake or afternoons brought down to the lake with her friends. She may not have known what it was to be glamorous like the boy from her district, but she’d seen the steady, unflinching hand of her father. One that held her when she’d cried over the death of her pet rabbit or cried himself when she’d done the homilies at church.

To sacrifice was as close any of them could get to the divine.

Ruth spent most of her days trying to give more of herself. Of putting in an extra quarter one of their customers needed. Giving the boys who’d teased her sister Mary a talking to for saying anything about the gap in her teeth. Spending hours in the church food pantry sorting through cans and handing out lunches her own family might’ve taken, had they not been so proud.

Standing and listening to the girl from four talk about sacrifice, Ruth reckoned they didn’t share enough common ground to understand. Here god might’ve tried to get her to take another look, to see that Bonnibal or Alexson were as salt of the earth as she was.

But she couldn’t pour from an empty cup. Not when it felt there was no room for mercy. Only that she could figure all of it out later, when the blood had dried from her spear.

“We've already had to give up ourselves. Seems like there isn't much more we could've given,” Ruth admitted.

Her answer was the swipe of a spear that came just wide. She’d held up her spear to push it aside, amazed she’d done it a second time.

‘Make sure she doesnt make it out of here either.’ The boy from four brought out venom, wishing death so easily it sent a shiver down her shoulders.

He took the moment to jab his spear deep into her shoulder, to which Ruth let out a scream. She stumbled forward, spear dislodged but blood spilling down over her jumpsuit and across the sand. She spun back to him, shoulder slumped, spear raised.

“I’m not doing this for you.” Ruth shot back, “I’m not doing it any more than I can get through this, and back to that.”

She wished she could find space in her heart to love god again.

Or at least for him to know she’d never wanted to be a killer.

Did it make her a bad person to want to live if the only other choice was to sacrifice everything? That had to be between her and god.

Maybe she’d ask him when she was finally put in the ground.

“HNNNG!”

elegant

ruth attacks bonnibal illy d4f with her spear
8KYnEWV4qospear
[+8.5]

ruth attacks alexson knox d4m with her spear
spear
[+0]
spear·spear

Last Edit: May 25, 2022 23:35:17 GMT -5 by marguerite harvard d2a (zori)

k!ah
Retired Staff

4,636 POSTS
Pronouns: She/Her
last seen Nov 19, 2024 4:03:09 GMT -5

#expensivetrash

Round One - Yellow May 26, 2022 1:04:28 GMT -5

Quote

Post by k!ah on May 26, 2022 1:04:28 GMT -5

Ten moves quickly, too quickly, his foot twisting awkwardly, cracking loudly. The swear on his lips and the tears in his eyes confirmed that the damage was extensive. Broken. But he pushes through, his spear meet mine, but his strength and momentum causes me to lose my balance, the head of his spear pushing past my guard and slicing into the sensitive skin under my boob. Grunting I push him off me, regaining my balance.

"I guess if I work hard enough, you'll never know."

Words that had a malicious intention have my lips pilling back into a grin, "what makes you think I don't already know?" Sure I hadn't actually killed someone, but there was blood on my hands. But I needed Ten to believe me to be some heartless killer, calculated and dangerous.

Pulling back the cuff of the hideous yellow jumpsuit I show Ten my exposed wrists. Scars circled them, dried blood was speckled across the angry scars, evidence of my incarceration. "3 years ago I murdered a peacekeeper," I lie, shrugging it off as though it was just a chore. "I have been locked up ever since." I pull down my cuffs, "they were gonna execute me once they trailed me as an adult." I smile darkly, "I guess they decided the standard execution didn't have enough flare."

attacks chant
mF192WqaLYspear
[Stabbed in Stomach -- 9.5 ]

spear

Last Edit: May 26, 2022 1:05:05 GMT -5 by k!ah

✮ UPAT ✮

kap
Retired Staff

6,037 POSTS
Pronouns: they/them
last seen Jul 4, 2024 19:59:43 GMT -5

trans rights are human rights <3

Round One - Yellow May 26, 2022 10:55:57 GMT -5

Quote

Post by kap on May 26, 2022 10:55:57 GMT -5

This girl says something about having killed a Peacekeeper before. Meanwhile, I'm just trying not to vomit. The combination of seeing Azon die and the pain of breaking my own foot makes me want to hurl. No one needs that, and I certainly don't want that.

While I'm distracted with trying to keep whatever food is in my stomach down, I feel a different pain in my stomach as the girl's spear stabs into it and I yell out in pain. This wasn't going well. I had a solid feeling I was going to die here, and I wasn't looking forward to it. Then again, I hadn't come in here thinking I had all that good of a chance anyway.

I looked to the girl, and decided to do what I did best: show her some respect. She was in here doing the same thing I was. She was just trying to survive and get home. She hadn't done anything to truly wrong me, other than what seemed like crafting some lie about a Peacekeeper. That didn't seem like it could've been true, but I wasn't going to argue with her.

"I'll show you some respect here," I told her through gritted teeth, "and that's by refusing to just give up."

If I decided on just giving up, that wouldn't have looked good for either of us, and I was sure she'd prefer to keep a strong reputation, as would I. If I just gave up, I'd be dead, and she'd look like she hadn't tried all that hard— or at least didn't put in all that much effort.

Who would want that?

So, I fought through the pain, and I struck back. I aimed my spear at her and lunged. This wasn't over yet, but I was sure it would be soon: most likely for me.

-----

WORDS:
301

Chant attacks Maya
IKQ_shXXJOspear
[sc 4.0]

spear

Last Edit: May 26, 2022 10:56:33 GMT -5 by kap

k!ah
Retired Staff

4,636 POSTS
Pronouns: She/Her
last seen Nov 19, 2024 4:03:09 GMT -5

#expensivetrash

Round One - Yellow May 26, 2022 23:57:54 GMT -5

Quote

Post by k!ah on May 26, 2022 23:57:54 GMT -5

My spear tip sneaks past his guard, burying itself into his stomach, turning his yellow jumpsuit red. He cries out, and as I press in deeper I watch the pain intensify to watch I imagined would be excruciating levels. My eyes meet his, the pain so obvious that I three years ago I would have dropped my gaze instantly, an apology on my lips. But now, as I stare into his eyes, I don't feel much, maybe a little bit of a hopeful feeling that this would be it.

The killing shot.

But alas it's not.

Ten refusing to cark it, like Azon had, looks at me a determination that had me wishing I could stomp on. "I'll show you some respect here, and that's by refusing to just give up," he manages through gritted teeth, and I click my tongue in annoyance. I didn't want him to fucking fight. I wanted him to die, to die quickly, without so much fuss. I wouldn't care less about respect. Him alive was dangerous, because with each strike I landed, he retaliated, making my shot at survival smaller.

Ripping the spear from his stomach I look at him with annoyance. "Respect? Mate, I don't want your respect. I want you dead."

He lunges at me again and I knock his aim to the side, grimacing as the rusted tip of his spear grazes my upper arm. "Ugh, fuck off," I groan, my annoyance growing as I watch a thin line of blood form. "This game we are playing doesn't demand respect. There are no hero's here. Just villains."

attacks chant
odojfPOmZWspear
[8.5 ]

spear

Last Edit: May 30, 2022 18:00:48 GMT -5 by k!ah

✮ UPAT ✮

ryan
Advertiser

2,989 POSTS

Pronouns: he/him
last seen Nov 20, 2024 20:34:06 GMT -5

over the moon, where all the wild things are

Round One - Yellow May 27, 2022 23:29:57 GMT -5

Quote

Post by ryan on May 27, 2022 23:29:57 GMT -5

I can barely breath, staggering through labored breathing just to hold on to whatever ounce of life I might have left in me. I have been put to the test time and time again, but I think I might have finally hit the end of the road.

"Do whatever you need to do Ruth. Ive said my piece." I am not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of the time it takes to do so. I have always been the lucky one in my own life. Ive made it so far on my own, and for this to be the end of it all, I do not feel whole.

I want so much more.

But I know that my time is fleeting, and I watch as Ruth pulls back her spear. She is ready to end it all, I can just tell it in the way that her form shows no flaw. She is willing to do what it takes to get out of here. I am too, but I am just too bloody, too much in pain for myself to keep going. I can rest easy knowing that Ruth keeps going.

My eyes blink as I watch her spear go through my district partner, a cannon is sounded and I watch her slump to the ground. I am not phased by death like I might have once been. There is very little reaction as I am just trying to brace myself for impact.

However, her spear collides with mine instead, the impact sending me to the ground. As I lay there practically in pieces, I take slower breathes as I look up at Ruth. I hold up my hands, spear now at the side of my body. "Tired?" I ask her as I feel pressure pushing down on my body. "I sure am." I am not going to make it out of here.

I am just gonna savor every moment I have left.

marguerite harvard d2a (zori)
Veteran Member

1,258 POSTS

last seen Apr 5, 2024 7:56:12 GMT -5

🌻

Round One - Yellow May 28, 2022 1:00:56 GMT -5

Quote

Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on May 28, 2022 1:00:56 GMT -5

r u t h

In this quiet town
Salt of the land
Hard-working people, if you're in trouble
They'll lend you a hand
Here in this quiet town

The boy from four spoke, but Ruth couldn’t help but stare at the body with blood pooling at her feet. It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes since she’d decided to become a murderer, or at least, weighed the thought and accepted the possibility. Even after all the talk at the pulpit of thou shalt not kill, that she was to love, to sacrifice. She’d been willing to gut this young woman like a fish.

Cold washed across her face despite the heat. She blanched at the spear in her hands and the blood trickling down between her fingers.

Why did any of them have to justify what they’d done? It’s not like her family held any levers of power. They were salt of the earth people. The kind they’d never write songs about or keep in histories. They were quick to blame when the world went the wrong way – why hadn’t her father abandoned her mother and them to march on the capitol? And why didn’t she now toss aside her spear to be a martyr? Especially as close as she’d ever been to god, she’d need many lifetimes to be forgiven for these sins.

“Exhausted.” Ruth kept looking down at the girl’s body. The ragged breathing of the boy reminded her that he’d be gone soon, too. Either by Ruth’s hand or someone else’s.

God.

She closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of wet earth.

“What would you have wanted? Instead of this?” Ruth asked. “She wanted to be a doctor.”

She wouldn’t get to help or heal now.

“I want to have a little café. A place where people could go before work at the mills. Or maybe stop in for lunch. Somewhere that’s always alive, even when I don’t feel like it. Always warm, but never stifling.” She could imagine the little lunch counter and the people stopping in for a sandwich or a cup of coffee.

“I’m not sure if we should even still be dreaming.” She opened her eyes. She leaned down toward the girl from four’s body and cleared her throat. “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.₁”

₁Psalm 90

elegant

ryan
Advertiser

2,989 POSTS

Pronouns: he/him
last seen Nov 20, 2024 20:34:06 GMT -5

over the moon, where all the wild things are

Round One - Yellow May 28, 2022 18:20:56 GMT -5

Quote

Post by ryan on May 28, 2022 18:20:56 GMT -5

Time slows around me, but my mind is racing. My breathing is starting to steady at the very least. There is something calming about the atmosphere. Sure, the cannons are loud, but I do not focus on that. There is no point in worrying anymore.

I wont be too far behind.

"I know what you mean." There is blood pooling around me, but I cannot tell if it is my own or my district partners anymore. Does it really matter? No. I dont think so. We are just gonna be little footnotes in Panem's history now.

My hand rests on the ground as Ruth asked me what I thought the rest of my life might be. "I think I just wanted to see my mother one more time before the end of all of this." I am honest with her, because there is no point in lying when death is right around the corner. "Many said she is dead, but I dont believe them." I hold onto hope like it is glued to my hand. "I just think she is lost out there... somewhere amongst the water."

I know I am probably just a little too hopeful.

She tells me about a cafe that she wanted to open and I dont have it in me to refute. My hands are still and I think about everything I could have done with my life if my name was not picked for this silly game that the capitol decided to throw. "Im sure it would be a lovely idea." I assure Ruth that anything is possible. "Im still here for now right?"

There is something calming about this interaction. I can feel some sort of release, like it will be okay to pass here. However, my body is just as stubborn as I am. I hear some sort of mantra come out of her mouth, and I have a feeling that she does not mean it. "Do you believe in what you are saying?" I am calm in my presentation of that sentence. I know well that people are willing to die for their faith.

After all, that is how we even got into this situation.

marguerite harvard d2a (zori)
Veteran Member

1,258 POSTS

last seen Apr 5, 2024 7:56:12 GMT -5

🌻

Round One - Yellow May 29, 2022 12:21:08 GMT -5

Quote

Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on May 29, 2022 12:21:08 GMT -5

r u t h

In this quiet town
Salt of the land
Hard-working people, if you're in trouble
They'll lend you a hand
Here in this quiet town

Ruth had grown up listening to a man preach about all the terrors of this world. Stories of people that turned on one another, committed heinous acts, and those that spited God for the sake of their own desire.

How much evil could exist in their little town? Were all her neighbors on knife’s edge, trying to decide between the unthinkable and the good?

As she’d gotten older, it was harder to blame them for things they’d done, or rules that made them make such hard choices. She couldn’t know what it’d meant to go without a mother and to work for just enough to get a meal. Or to compromise herself or her family because no one had been willing to do more (if they even could’ve).

“She’s not gone,” Ruth said, voice tremulous over the din of cannons and screams. She couldn’t say what part of herself it’d come from, the way she’d been so ready to offer comfort to a boy she’d brought to death. And how could she know, after all, that a woman she’d never met was out in the universe without her son.

It seemed cruel to offer a shred of hope when either of them could be dead in the next hour.

Do you believe in what you are saying?

His breath was haggard, and Ruth could see the stains of blood along his clothes. Sand clumped along his feet where blood had started to dry.

“I tried not to,” Ruth admitted. She had stood at the foot of the stairs in her family’s home and declared she couldn’t go to church anymore. “And for a while I thought it was better not to believe in anything but myself. Because it hurt a lot less not having to think about why we’d be here if it meant we were just supposed to suffer.”

She still couldn’t figure why they would suffer if they had only been created for her to live a short, painful life.

“But I believe. I’m not the best messenger for God, or anyone. But I want to believe even if we have to suffer, there’s good, too.” Ruth surrounded herself in faith and refused to let doubt weigh down her shoulders anymore. “That what I’ve seen means there’s better than me out there.”

“I can’t justify what I’ve done, but I don’t know if I have to.” Ruth could see the body of the other four out of the corner of her eye. “I believe because I want the world to be better. I want to have a life. And someday maybe I’ll understand what that should look like.”

She twisted the spear in her hands.

“But for now, I’ve got to live the only way I know how.”

elegant

k!ah
Retired Staff

4,636 POSTS
Pronouns: She/Her
last seen Nov 19, 2024 4:03:09 GMT -5

#expensivetrash

Round One - Yellow May 30, 2022 19:05:40 GMT -5

Quote

Post by k!ah on May 30, 2022 19:05:40 GMT -5

Knocking his blade off course forces Ten to lose balance. He stumbles, the loss of blood contributing to his unsteadiness. In doing so he exposes his back, and I don't hesitate. Pivoting, a grunt pushes past gritted teeth as I bring my spear down on him, hard. It rips the skin along his spine open, grazing bone, and forcing him into the blood soaked earth.

My chest heaves as I push myself into a standing position, staring down at Ten. It seems to take all his effort to roll onto his back, his breathing ragged and uneven, but his eyes still alight with the fight, with determination, and a fierceness that made my skin squirm slightly. It was unnerving, almost as though I was staring into my own reflection from the years I had spent fighting against the people who tried to break me. Why did he have to look at me like that?

"You can kill me," he starts, trying to push himself up. I knock him down almost instantly, all the feelings that had been hidden by the rush of adrenaline, slowly beginning to sink in. Maybe I wasn't as desensitised as I had originally thought, maybe I had just been so determined not to feel anything, to be as heartless as those who had tried to tear me down, that I had refused to allow myself to feel. But my lower lip trembling as Ten's face pales, and I try to will away the shake in my knees. "But I still won't lose respect for myself.”

"Shut up!" I growl, shaking my head slightly, I needed him to stop talking. To stop looking at me like that. To stop the feelings of regret, of remorse and guilt from overwhelming me. "Just shut up. I need to think. I need time to think. I just need quiet." I mumble, but all round me I hear the clash of steel, the cries of the wounded and the blasts of canons.

"I-" Ten starts and I snap, shoving my spear into the vulnerable flesh under his chin, pushing until it breaks through his neck and pushes into dirt.

"I-I said shut up," I whisper, watching as he struggles, blood gurgling in his throat, drowning him. Coughing, blood spills from his lips, dribbling down his chin. I watch, my knee's shaking, my spear the only reason I don't collapse onto his corpse.

The crowd cheers, and I glare up at them, spitting onto the sand. "You like that?" I scream at them, finding my strength. "Your a bunch of sick fucks, ya know!" I screech, ripping off one of my shoes to throw at the squealing baboons. "Fuck you!"