Fish Fry [bards vs kuo-toa]
Jul 18, 2022 18:08:50 GMT -5
Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on Jul 18, 2022 18:08:50 GMT -5
When it really had mattered, we couldn’t find the truth with our blades – and part of me didn’t ever want to.
And not because I didn’t want to live.
I could close my eyes and picture myself sitting down next to Tolsa on the porch to chew a cigarillo and lean back in the porch swing as though the whole world had to kiss my feet. It’s a stupid dream, to think this world would ever lay down and crawl through a dirt for a boy like me, but you can’t help imagining it once you’ve set foot in this arena. Three days and I’m ready for someone to put a crown on my head, not because I think I’m more worthy than the other kids, but because if I didn’t believe it, I might as well have lay down and died then and there.
"You know, I never thought I'd get this far... hand to God, I thought I'd have run off and died by now. But look at us, huh?" I plucked a few strings on my lute and stared over at Cor. We’d settled in for the evening, meadow at our backs and the river in view. I hadn’t given up on making music, still pressing my fingers across the bridge and plucking out chords to fill the silence. They crept along the edge of the river, minor and mournful, disappearing along with the waves.
‘Honestly, me too. I never pegged you for making it past day 1, let alone outliving Alpha… but I look at us now.' Her voice cuts out over a few more strums, ‘We make quite the pair. Good TV, I think. Boost the ratings.’
Cor’s honest, couldn’t fault her for that, even if her delivery’s something of a sledgehammer. I respected it, the way she cut people to the core when she could. You’d never forget where you stood with Cordelia, that’d make you a fool.
‘I bet the Capitol is eating this shit up.’ It’d be the ruin of both of us, but then, when hadn’t the capitol feasted on emotional trauma for the sake of views before?
"If there's one thing I know how to do, it's keep people watching." I said with a grin. Not that what I’d done so far was all for infamy. I liked to think I doled out a bit of camp mixed with absurdity right before I had to take in an earnest seriousness. But god damn it if I wasn’t going to lighten up this place a little and get away from the self-pitying SOBs we watched year after year. "And I always thought you'd get somewhere. I don't think anyone's going to stop you but yourself, Cor."
If anyone’s head had already been fitted for a crown, that was Cordelia.
‘You definitely know how to get attention,’ She laughed – if you can imagine it – her poking fun at my ridiculousness brings out a couple of dimples I hadn’t noticed before, ‘You never know, though, Maybe you might finally decide to be done with me and stab me in the back whilst I’m sleeping.’
I stopped playing and shifted to look her square in the eyes at the accusation that I’d ever be such a dirty dog that I’d stab her in the dead of night.
‘Or I might stab you. Who knows, the arena, these games, have a way of making us do fucked up things,’ She finished and – well, that part was more believable. Cordelia could be willing to do anything to stay alive and to claim the title of victor.
I tried to dig deep, to fill the space between my ribcage and my heart, to know what it was that I’d been stepping on, trying to beat back down into the earth. Was I willing to do whatever it took to win?
“Strange things. I don't know if I could, but then, I've seen it happen.”
We get one chance in this world, and we get to decide the details, however small they might be. And when it’s over, you gotta look in the mirror and understand whether or not that’s the type of man you wanted to be. Some folks might kick up dust and say that here in this world, we have to make the hard decisions, so the easy ones come later. But I didn’t ever believe in taking shortcuts when my heart depended on it. "Would be nice to go home."
‘I- I don’t think I could either. If I did kill you, I’d want to do it when your awake that way you’d know it was me, and who to haunt in the afterlife,’ She spoke with a pause, and I smiled. There really was a human underneath all that, huh? ‘I’ve heard 10 is a shit hole, and that air smell like cow shit.’
“It may smell like shit, but it doesn't mean it ain't home.” Now, I’d usually be the first to make jokes about ten. You’ve heard all the greatest hits: we fuck our cousins, everyone smells like pig shit, or that if you looked at our family tree it’s pretty much a single line. Staring out at the fog dancing across the top of the river, all I could think was that there’s a piece of me back there. And that little piece kept me thinking about who I was, and could be.
"I'd like to see my sisters someday." I plucked out a final set of chords. Were they watching me now, did the camera pan in on me and did a band flourish in the background? (Hey, don’t forget me now. But don’t remember me like this, please).
“That's enough for one night. Let's get some rest.”
Morning came with a shot, sun up overhead and a heat that brough sweat across my brow. I’d stretched out on my back and lay with my arms stretched, sunning like a lizard. Even as awful as things were, I could still enjoy a sunny morning with nothing on the schedule.
Of course being in the middle of the hunger games had a way of surprise visits and unwanted meetings becoming the norm.
“Hey uh… Cor…” I leaned to sit up and put my hands to my knees. A shadow had cut clear across, meaning someone or something was on the approach. “There’s uh, things, uh, I mean…”
A group was coming up out of the river, ugly fish heads with squat bodies, but worse than the fact that they were the most hideous fucking things I’d ever seen, they had weapons to boot.
“I don’t really like fish, but guess that’s on the menu.” I took up my sword and charged, letting out a rallying cry. “HRRRRG!”
[cachimorro attacks the kua-tua with his sword]
TcgQTgv2KVsword
[+3.5]sword
