those little things that i fear. // f vs b vs t // day 6.

〖    b r e n n a n    f i t z g e r a l d    〗

The purple fog draws Pierce, Haze, and me out of the cave that we’d called home for the past two days. I’m hesitant as it splashes against our walls. The mist, or fog, whatever you’d like to call it, almost feels soft upon contact, unlike the other electric fields that the cave protected us from in nights prior. The dead of the night feels a lot less scary with a dazzling haze spinning, caught in breath like cotton candy. If I wasn’t starving and begging myself to drink out of the waterskin before the recommended time, I might find more time to protest it under the rule of thumb that ‘all beautiful things in the arena are ugly inside.’

I hear Haze call out my name first. I turn back— she was following me— but she’s not there anymore.

"Haze?" I whisper, fanning through the mist to try and get a better sense of where she is. It’s thick though, the mist. "Pierce?" I’m louder and faster now as I search for them, but we’re all needles in a haystack. No, needles in a hayocean. I’m not going to find them unless I master the strategy of echolocation soon enough. I press on through the path. It’s only a matter of time before protests begin to become punished by the Gamemakers. They want us to move.

"We are going to see each other again. We’re going to see each other again" I say, first with the hope that they’re close enough to hear it, and second with the hope that it’s not just a wishful thought. Tomorrow is going to be better. The Capitol loves to tear up alliances and rip up the lifelines that we’ve used to survive. I lost one of them already. Amaterasu. But I still have two friends left, and I’ve got them right where I want them. Close, caring. Like we’ll matter to each other forever and ever. And for once, it doesn’t feel like I’m the one trying to ruin the good things I have. The shoe’s on the other foot, and I have the chance to keep things with Pierce and Haze good and well.

But only if I’m strong enough to do it. I take my katana and hold it out ahead of me. The lingering haze through the clearing brushes through my hair and through my clothes and my boots. The cool touch is enough to make the sweat a little more bearable to travel with. My little friend, who I’d found within the trees last night, stares at me. Its facial expressions are a bit tough to comprehend, but it seems worried as it travels behind my leg, almost clutching at it, like it doesn’t want me to go. I pat at its blank head. "Unfortunately, these games don’t work like that, friend. Running isn’t an option when trouble knows exactly where to find you."

The ground slowly begins to be less and less secure at my feet. Cherry blossoms flutter through the fog and strands of ribbon whip past before I can even see where they're headed. The arena is brewing a fabulous concoction. Cherry blossom petals, an intriguing haze, gold ribbons like a first-place prize. And most importantly, the tributes. Because how could they complete a recipe for trauma without a human sacrifice or two?

There are a couple of tributes ahead in my view. My fingers grasp themselves onto my sword, pressing deep into the engravings of its hilt. My chest locks up briefly. This is the first time that I've been without Pierce and Haizea when engaging in a battle. Knowing that there haven't been any new cannons gives me the confidence to pretend that they're still beside me. It may feel like I'm floating and lost, but they keep me grounded. Pierce holds me by one leg, grounded for love. Haze has the other, grounded for change. It's difficult to make out who's ahead through the purple glow of the mist, so I walk closer, practically dragging my feet as I go to save all the energy for my sword.

We're only a few feet away from one another when I can make out their faces. One is Francine, from Seven. She's one of the few people I hadn't seen yet in the arena, along with Itzal and Mirage judging from the cave's list of remaining tributes. The other is Theo, Svet's ally, and he doesn't look any worse than the day we'd last met. That day, mind you, was when he flung his spear straight at my face. We might have an ax to grind with one another, tat for tat.

It is as I'm glaring at Theo that the Kodama friend jumps without much of a warning, swinging around to my front side and leaping up my leg. I bend down, ready to shove it away from tripping me in such a tense moment. But I see what it was trying to do: Francine's sword, flickering with some familiar blue energy, slices the small creature in two. It was protecting me. My thoughts call back to Ama, who died defending and protecting the group. I channel those same feelings, looking up as the battle seems to have begun.

I point to Francine's sword. "Last I checked, Svetlana had that sword. Now you have it, so I suppose I should be thanking you." I speak with as much confidence as I'd had when I was reaped. My katana rises. "But I'll save you the gratitude. It belongs with someone else." It was Ama's, first and always. I swing first at Francine, in hopes that I'll be able to let the sword rest for Ama's sake.

[ brennan attacks francine ; katana (sword) ]
KUuMK4oKiHsword
[ 1139 -- Deep Gash on Right Bicep -- 8.0 damage ]

"And you, Theo," I turn to Theo. "I remember you calling Haizea a bitch." My katana carries over in Theo's direction, and I shake my head. I have friends now, and I'll protect them from unkind remarks. "She's the most loving, caring, and warm person in this arena. Don't forget that." The katana bends in his direction. If he wants a bitch, I'll give him a bitch (and yes, I considered saying that part out loud, and yes I'm glad I didn't because it'd be like walking into a minefield.)

[ brennan attacks theo ; katana (sword) ]
sword
[ 1135 -- Deep Gash on Right Bicep -- 8.0 damage ]

i'm just a girl
some kind of
f r e a k !

For a moment she thinks she's sliced through flesh - but something inhuman falls to the ground with a thud, then another. Two pieces of something, but not of the boy.

Francine frowns, raises her sword up to her face. Lightning flashes in the glint in her eyes as tears prick, pain seething through her arm. She hasn't felt a wound like this since the very beginning, invisible amongst the chaos that plucked away her allies one by one with death's hands. How foolish to forget that pain is so very real in here. That she could not be invisible forever. Such childish things.

Let's play a game of hide and seek - well, look at that. She's been bested at her own game.

"It's mine," she growls, low, curling into herself as her wounded arm wobbles under the strain of keeping the sword upright. "Not yours."

francine attacks brennan, engulfing lightning (sword)
MgUqW2zUdJsword
8+1

Where Francine has few words, the other boy has plenty for all of them. She gets it, that anger. That burning furiousness that near seeps out of his eyes, his ears, his mouth. He doesn't want niceties, friendship, reminders of either. He has no place for them. Best to keep those under wraps, thinks Francine, heart tightening at the thought of Adan and Autumn falling at the hands of his weapon.

So she doesn't say their names when she strikes again. She feels them, pulling the sword back, swinging it forward. Hears their words on the wind, in the ache in her muscles, in her angry, desperate yelp when her sword misses the first time.

francine attacks theo, engulfing lightning (sword)
sword

miss

accuracy day 6
sword
3.5

〖    b r e n n a n    f i t z g e r a l d    〗

I'm satisfied with the response I get from Theo, who's uninterested in cherishing 'fake happy memories.' He seems to be catching on to what I'm saying between breaths. Just because I have a snark to my tone at the moment doesn't mean I hate him. He didn't deliver the kill onto Ama as Svet did, and he didn't take the first attack in that ambush. That was Dorothy. I'm picking away rose petals until there's nothing left but thorns to justify this fight. Francine has Ama's sword. Theo hurt Haze's feelings. I sell myself turning the blade, again and again in honor of them, not in distaste for the people I'm battling. Yeah, that's it. The rocks below grow unsteady, but the past six days have allowed me to adjust on the fly.

I hope that Theo doesn't think I'm doing this out of hate. Maybe once we're all long dead, we can hold hands in the dirt, say fair game, and be content. But we have to save that for later, years and years from today if we're lucky. It's go-time now as Francine nicks the sturdy plates on my chest, spreading them apart with her force. The fog whispers don't stop now, reaching out like a hand toward my wrist, where blood has already begun to spread and clutter. The ground feels as though it shifts and I catch myself from falling. It's getting a little more clear now that we've been led to the highest peaks of the mountains that Haizea pointed out on our first night.

"A bit off-topic, but the Gamemakers could totally drop this thing onto the ground and kill us all." I start the rotation with Francine again. My katana slices through fog, revealing that we're rather close to the peak's end. I suppose they could crumble the corners of the peak and we'd all plummet as well.

[ brennan attacks francine ; katana (sword) ]
0MyroGzgLTsword
[1043 -- Stabbed in Hand -- 8.0 damage + 1.0 Blades]

I then turn to Theo, pulling myself closer to what appears to be somewhat less near the cliffside. "I doubt they would, though. Judging from my training session, they probably haven't listened to one thing I've said." Funny, how I've kept their scores secret when I promised I'd expose them. They all got D-, if you're curious. I just got the feeling they wouldn't care. "Plus, I think they love watching children kill children." I try to do as they desire, ending my sequence of movements with a slash in Theo's direction.

[ brennan attacks theo ; katana (sword) ]
sword
[1003 -- Shallow Cut on Left Shoulder -- 3.5 damage]

i'm just a girl
some kind of
f r e a k !

Francine can almost feel her ghosts gathered around her. Transparent, near corporeal, so close. They whisper, scream, cry out - half elated, half devastated, that their tie to the living world will soon join them in the forest.

The world tilts and she thinks she might be falling. For a moment, when her heart leaps out of her chest Francine is convinced that she's already dead, slipped away without even realising it. But the cold ground finds her back and the wind is knocked from her lungs with a thud and a groan, gasping as she tries to scramble back upwards.

Theo's spear nicks the flesh of her leg on the come-up, yelling at Brennan about giving the Gamemakers ideas. She looks to the sky and huffs, scowling. What could she say to them, wishing upon a star, conjuring up some miracle to save her dying self - give me someone my own size to fight next time, huh?

She's slower, moving. Slower than she's ever been. The ghosts scream, kiss her cheeks, wrap their hands around her limbs. They tug, begging for her to leave. (join us,) not yet. (join us,) not yet. (we've been waiting,) she knows. (we're your only friends left), she knows.

Two strapping lads and a scrap of a girl - she never stood a chance, did she?

(If I die that's fine. I'll be with my friends.)

She's not sad. She's not sad.

A tear falls down her cheek regardless.