death tastes of heaven 🗡 bodybag bards, day 2.

*

Lightning in a bottle.

His hands on mine after crashing to the shore, as though the winding river knew what both of us wanted (despite trying to drown us both). I could drink in Charlie’s body on top of me, heavy like a rock yet soft, his eyes pleading that neither of us say no to this.

I’d lie if it meant that I wouldn’t get hurt from this.

I already had a boy back home who loved me, who’d give up the whole world just to take care of my family if something happens to me. He’d promised the world, and I wanted to believe that at seventeen it was just talk. Xavier would never go on loving me when he saw what I was capable of, or that I’d turned to dust. Sure a few months go by, and he’d be ready to move on. Grief was a train and soon he’d be far enough away from the station it wouldn’t feel real anymore.

So, I’d made myself a part of Charlie’s story, and his mine. Because when he was on top of me, I could close my eyes and be back on solid ground in Ten again. I could hear the cows letting out a call to one another, or the clatter of milk bottles getting switched out the machines again. I could be back underneath those stars with Xavier again; I could even imagine two old cowboys looking back at a life well lived, if not for all the mistakes we were bound to make.

I arrived sopping wet and managed to slap the biggest smile on my face for them.

“Charlie and I got together. The hottie from ten? My district partner?”

Cor chewed me out, and I didn’t expect her to understand. Alpha wasn’t looking too good yet, and at least I got the benefit of her silence.

“Listen, sometimes you just have to get your back blown out when you’re stressed,” I replied. Because someone like Cor could never understand what it meant to want to get one last grasp of home – especially one that could make my body feel fire. She’d probably never had much of a home to begin with. “It’ll help me focus tomorrow, anyway.”

It’s a false bravado worth maintaining.

I’d never tell Cor about how much it ached to know that all of this was ending soon. I liked to believe that we only had so much we could hold on to, and that was only when we dared to try. This whole world was bound to fuck us up hard enough we barely remembered what we used to be.

We don’t spend any time trying to get to know one another, and I have to think that’s for the best. Watching the games, there are sets of allies that always try to poke at scars and dredge up whole life stories. And to be honest, I was tired as fuck and didn’t need to find out why Cor was such a bitch or Alpha looked like death (to be fair, loss of blood and chopping off someone’s head would do that).

Instead, I got to sleep like a baby (snoring loud enough to shake the trees around us and farting through the night).

Then of course they woke me up screaming about something – an alliance? Nah. An ugly lion bird sort of thing that did one of the most unforgivable things, which was wake me from a good night’s sleep.

I yawned while Cor and Alpha leapt into action. It was impressive that their adrenaline kicked in and they were fucking bum rushing this giant monster that could rip us to shreds. While they got into positions, I pressed up off the grass and stretched, scratching at my back. I pulled my sword out of its sheath and took a look at where the thing was going.

“Yeah um.” I added my voice to the group, “Now that we decided to try and kill it, I don’t think we got any real choice other than to finish it right?”

I gave a shrug.

“So uh, let’s see if I’m still any good with this thing.”

[Cachi attacks the sphinx with his sword]

filler filler dont want to hold anything uP

"Put some fucking oomph into your swing, Cachi, or I swear to Ripred, I'll chop your dick off," I yell, my voice scratchy, a broken record in the panic.

alpha attacks sphinx
with greataxe (axe)


b9aPxS8Hlwaxe


[ roll ]

*

It’s not unexpected that they’d be screaming at me – some would say getting hysterical (not me! I’m one of the good ones) – when shit really starts to hit the fan. All of us hadn’t done much more than nick the surface of the lion-cat-thing when it charged and took a chunk out of my shoulder in retribution. At least it hadn’t done much more than that, though from the looks of things, didn’t mean this thing wasn’t capable of ripping my head off.

“Alpha, if you want to play with my dick all you have to do is ask, babe,” I stuck out my tongue as I gripped my sword with both hands. I still kept my eyes on the monster in front of us, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have some fun with my dearest allies. “I’m not really into being a sub or girls but who knows? There’s a first time for everything.”

Then they had to go and show the fuck up – Alpha clambering forward to slash across the flank of the beast and Cor practically gutting it in another swing. Well, shit.

“Oh I would love to be your kept man, Cor, but wouldn't your boyfriend Satan get jealous?” I sneered back at her. I couldn’t think of who would want to ever be with her, though I know some guys like to stick their dick in crazy. And if she was a career there was the off chance she was rich as hell, which was enough reason nowadays to be loveless. “Don’t worry though, I think I got the hang of it.”

I charged toward the sphinx, careful not to slip the blood dripping across the grass, and geared up to swing my sword like a baseball bat across its neck.

“How’s about this then?!”

[Cachi attacks the sphinx with his sword]

Crimson.

It melts into my vision, obstructing some of my view. The beasts claws does a number on the side of my head, knocking the wind from my lungs as it's paw collided with my skull and dug into the skin on my forehead. I can taste the copper of my own blood as it leaks down my face and onto my tongue.

Inhale, I have to remind myself, nostrils flaring as I take a deep breath to steady myself.

"Don't flatter yourself, Cachi. I wouldn't want to catch one of the many diseases you most definitely have."

The axe makes my arms dip, it's big as fuck and it's taking everything just to keep them up. Cor buries her sword into the creature with a squish as it cuts through the flesh. She may talk a lot, I swear her lips don't ever stop flapping, but she knows how to back it up. It's the career training shining through her possibly plastic exterior. Cachi makes a snide retort with a sneer smeared on his face before making a flimsy attempt at an attack, grazing the creatures skin.

My face twists into a sarcastic pout, "Awe, even when you're trying you still hit like a little bitch."

alpha attacks sphinx
with greataxe (axe)


2grQ15dmrMaxe


[ roll ]

*

It’s a half-hearted hit, but a hit all the same. I guess all the adrenaline of the bloodbath’s far behind me, and this turned to a more accurate representation of what I’m capable of. Which is probably a reflection of the fact that we weren’t really the killing type on our farm. Yeah, it was a way of life that some animals got old and needed to be put out of their misery. We had chickens we ate that I’d had to deal with, but never anything we really loved.

Cats always disappeared when they got sick, and I couldn’t keep dogs around the farm. Not so much that I didn’t like them or that we were allergic. But that I couldn’t think about what would happen when they got too old, and I might have to be the one to put them down.

But this thing wasn’t some sweet old pooch or any sort of thing I could empathize with, it’d been bred to shred our skin from our bones. And that wasn’t necessarily its fault, but it meant that we weren’t going to fall on our swords instead of killing it. Guess it was just the interlude between us going for one another.

“You’ll be pleased to know I only ever had to get one shot in my – four? Five years?” I couldn’t remember how long it’d been. What? We start a lil earlier in ten. At least it wasn’t with my cousins.

“Let me see if I can do this again – ” I staggered forward, a bit worse for wear. Ready to swing this time.


[Cachi attacks the sphinx with his sword]

filler to get this bitch doNE

- "give me the damn sword, your going to cut off your own fucking head before you do any damage to that thing."
- takes cachi's sword, shoves her axe into his hands
- slash slash hundred yard dash

alpha attacks sphinx
with sword


qGCdhXYID9sword


[ roll ]

[GM edit: invalid weapon, attack nullified]