time is a weird soup [day 6, m v l v x]
Jul 26, 2023 17:40:37 GMT -5
Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on Jul 26, 2023 17:40:37 GMT -5
"… I think pizza might be my favorite, though. Because nothing beats cheese, bread, and a little bit of tomato. You just can’t…”
Magi had discarded silence in favor of speaking to the world around him. Magic as it were, his voice carried up over the walls of the cornucopia and into the woods, down through the cenote and back to the blighted path in front of him.
He’d spent a day alone and found silence tasted much like the rotted stench that now surrounded him. Losing Lara had pushed him into the shadows, once again out at the margins. Not flashy like the careers, or heart wrenching like some others whose stories surely tugged at heartstrings, Magi had steadily walked on.
Over hill and dale, he’d kept his head on his shoulders – unlike the boy whose head he’d removed – and in staring at the sunset, made some determinations.
First, he’d been proud to have survived twelve canons.
He’d been almost assured that he’d perish early. If only for his lack of fighting prowess and allies, Magi had thought his time would be cut short by a stray arrow or falling tree. Surviving yet another brush with his fellow tributes, Magi couldn’t be afraid anymore (well, he could be less afraid) to face them.
Had he not proven enough of himself that abject terror seemed silly?
Second, he no longer wished to remain silent.
He’d spared few words with Lara, and now he’d wished they had spent more time breathless, fighting to get in a word edgewise.
These could be the last few hours, minutes, or seconds of his life.
He wasn’t going to be another note at the margins.
They could see who he was, and would always be. In his own words.
“Dad, you remember the time you took me to see a baseball game when I was ten?” Magi stepped across another rotting log and pushed away from brush. “That was one of the best things we ever did. You remember how we screamed when they hit that homer right over us? Man. That was the best.”
He could smell the old wooden seats and the popcorn. They’d bought a hot dog to share, though his dad had let him eat most of it. He’d marveled at the hand stitched jerseys and the way everyone got up to do the wave. The rotting wood in front of him disappeared in favor of a baseball diamond. The trees scaling up at his back were the edges of seats in the stadium.
Magi cut back a few more branches as he edged along.
“You go see another game for me, ok?” Magi threw a glance back over his shoulder at a crack in the distance. “You’re gonna catch something this time, I bet.”
He’d have to forgive himself for talking as though he wasn’t going to be in those stands, but then, Magi had never been good at making promises he didn’t think he could keep.
“Mom, you should keep playing that guitar.” Magi rubbed away the sweat forming at his brow. “You were always good at it. You used to play it for me when I was little and then you just sort of stopped. I don’t think I ever asked you to keep playing and I’m really sorry about that.”
He had a lot to apologize for, and if he stayed alive long enough, he might’ve been able to get to at least half of it.
“Don’t go getting all sad.” Magi waved with his free hand, the other gripping tight at his sword. “You’ve probably been sad for at least a few weeks.”
He slowed and stared up at the gnarled branches overhead.
“I’m never going to be what you pictured,” Magi took courage in honesty, his heart beating heavy in his ears, “But maybe it’s better we let that part of me go, huh?”
He could never be the boy they’d pictured – an engineer, top of his class, a statesman or orator – but maybe they could see who he really was through all of this.
“I’m just doing my best,” Magi whispered, “And that’s something I’ve gotten better at. Maybe that’s what’s kept me alive, too. Heh. I never thought much of what I could do. If I was better than anyone, because – well, I never thought I was.”
He leaned back against a tree and managed a smile.
“But I don’t feel sorry for myself. Just – I think I’m a whole lot of things that aren’t perfect, but I’m still here. For now.” He cleared his throat. “So, maybe take another look and see what you might’ve missed. I made it this far Mom and Dad.”
There was that familiar crack again, and the hairs on the back of Magi’s neck stood on end. The heat rose into his cheeks, and Magi steadied with his blade out in front of him.
As he peered out through the branches, he caught sight of the same girls he’d seen the other day.
Neither of them were ones to be trifled with. And yet.
“You might want to go the other way,” Magi called out from the edge of one tree to Larissa, before ducking against it to hide. He sat there for a second with a bit of a smile. He launched himself forward and raced behind a bush with a laugh.
Was this stupid attempting to taunt from afar? Definitely stupid.
“Hey, hey, did you know there’s someone over on the other side? You might’ve missed him. Or her. Heh.” He called out to Xaa with another laugh.
Whatever stupid courage had worked up into his chest, Magi did his best to channel it into his blade.
He needed to strike or be struck, now that he’d done his best to play a trickster like the fae.
Three. Two.
“ONE!” He called out, bursting forth from the trees full tilt.
That same courage wavered at the sight of the other nine people in the arena with him at their backs and around them. Skin oozing, scars bleeding black, and voices calling out.
Good thing he'd been on his own for days now, or he might've been worried about them.
“HRRRRRRNG!
[Magi attacks Larissa with gloomblade (sword)]
iO53caF9XQsword
[result:+3.5]
[Magi attacks Xaa with gloomblade (sword)]
sword
[result:+8 + 1 blades]sword·sword