The Bloodbath

AKINA ANTHEA HOOPER

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
I’m very sorry, baby, doesn’t look like me at all
I’m standing by the window where the light is strong
Ah they don’t let a woman kill you
Not in the Tower of Song

All I have to do is survive.

Akina can feel her whole body vibrating, but she can’t stop it. She knows exactly the chemicals that her body is releasing, the glands that those chemicals are excreted from, but she cannot control their excretion. She hates that her body is so weak, that for all the strength of her mind, she is still slave to such bodily shortcomings as fear.


Her fists are clenched so tightly that her nails are cutting her palms. The nervousness keeps mounting like the wooden blocks that children play with, stacking them higher and higher until they topple with a spectacular crash back to the ground. Akina is pacing quickly in her holding room, the coffee and cheesy mashed potatoes that she had as her ‘last good meal’, sitting unhappily in her roiling belly.

Their outfits are all black this year, with ugly shoes that shouldn't be comfortable but are. Akina assumes that the outfit is built for climbing and camoflage.

"Tributes to your platforms." Says a cool, mechanical voice from the ceiling. Akina’s heart clenches painfully, and her whole body feels like it hasn’t seen the sun in years.


How did I think this was a good idea? I’m going to die.

In short, stiff bursts of movement, Akina climbs onto her platform and closes her eyes tightly. Focus on the positive. She thinks, taking deep, slow breaths. She can hear the glass tube lowering around her, and just after it clicks into place, her platform lurches into motion. Focus on the positive.

It’s a comfortable coffin, at least, she thinks. The flecks of blood that have collected on her hands and face don’t worry her. The air isn’t too cool, and it’s not too hot. There is plenty of sunlight. It must be like one of the big, oak coffins, lined with the finest pillows, for all of us. She is deluded here, thinking that this is all just one big wonderful warm place. She is, of all things, not paying attention to the death that has taken place around and by her. That would be too real, too evident. She has made up her mind that they are all already dead, this was an act of finishing the deed. Why should she worry about the consequences? She was already resigned to meeting death with open arms.

“Please do try to settle down. It’s only going to hurt for a moment.” She says, raising her weapon high. She hoped she looked as skinny as she felt on screen, with the world watching.

[Florence attacks akina with glaive ]
[dice=200+13000]
[result:13058 -- Stabbed in Bicep -- 8.5 damage]
[collects twine]

media.tumblr.com/4f204c2c18fa8e9a5f5cce81e6e14a08/tumblr_inline_mfttxfHl1z1rblufh.gif

Opal Shore --

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

When I look up a symphony of colours burst forth across my vision. Flowers, leaves, and plants of all sorts sway in the gentle calming breeze. The afternoon light flickers off of the trees, and in turn it throws down a thousand different intricate designs, weaving themselves across the ground. They race this way and that, patterned shadows entangling themselves into a net of beautiful, unique freedom. It was in this place where I felt most at home, where the trees could brush up against me, where my heart swelled to encompass all the earth before me. The feel of dirt on my feet draws a smile across my lips. I love feeling lost in my garden, I love feeling the world take shape and do as I say, plants grow as tall as I will them to grow and life is given only when I command it. This was the central pivotal point of my entire life. This garden, these plants and each heart beat that stormed through this peace built to move to the rhythm of this world, of my world.

Then I blink.

And the world is dragged forth. And the colours are shattered and a thousand pieces of a stolen memory are thrown from my mind. The world that had once been as strong and as real as ever was now no more than a slither of a piece of string that slips from my grasp with every attempt to grab it. Suddenly I’m facing the horrors of this new world, suddenly I’m faced with the terror of a time that some have dreamed of. I’m looking into the world of death and I am so scared, because I do not want to die. I, Opal Silva Shore, am not ready to fall, bloodied and into a million pieces. But I can fight and fight I will, it is the only thing I have left to do. I look down at the desolate world around me, and I’m wishing, I’m wishing with this cold heart of mine that there was a flower, that there was a leaf that there was some sign that I could call my death bed my home. I only feel alienated.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

I’m struck by the land in front of me. The familiar shone of the golden cornucopia, however, is little more than comforting. I stare behind me, using some of my precious time to gather a better bearing of the land I was facing. I frown, the perplexing sight of a forest that was white. A few more seconds drag by as I try to figure out what it was, it did not look like a normal forest, but from this distance I was no sure of what it actually was. Eventually I force myself to look away, my heart increasing with every moment of passing silence. They could all see me. My entire family, the people I was related to. They could see me standing here, could they see the shake in my hands? Could they see the terror in my eyes? Were they as scared for me as I was for them? I was so scared, I was so fucking scared. I’d never felt this kind of terror before, I knew it was going to be a task to force myself off of this plate when that bang sounds. Will I? I really don’t know, right now I feel glued to this spot. I close my eyes, my mind dragging back the image of my home, dragging forth the pictures of those lovely tall plants and the sight of my flowers in bloom.

I smile.

Clenching my hands tightly by my sides I open my eyes once more. This time I force myself to not shake and I force back that growing wall of terror. I look left then right; my allies not even a few spaces away from me. I could do this. Time, in this perilous world is all you have and when your time runs out you know it is all over. The clock is ticking down tick, tock, tick, tock and every second means one less moment for me to gather my wits, to gather the minimal courage I have to dive head first into this new terror. I could see the blood that would spill already. I could feel the artificial blood on my face, the way it had felt so refreshing and real to rip into that dummy, to tear out its lungs. I had loved destroying it; I had loved telling the Gamemaker’s that I could do this and that I would be the new victor, the new winner. Tick, tock. I take another shaky breath, allowing a slither of air to slip past my tight lips. And I bend down, forcing my muscles into the correct position so that I could run. And run I would, I’d run like hell and I’d fight, for Emerald, for my useless family and for me. It was tie to prove to them all who I was and why I was dangerous.

Gong.

I run.

Cathedral, where you cannot breathe,
No need to pray, no need to speak
Now I am under, Oh.
And it's breaking over me,
A thousand miles onto the sea bed,

I remember yesterday, sitting in the dining hall, eating on my own, still reluctant to spend time with the people who would be sharing the cage where we would all die, well, all of us except one. I remember how yesterday I had free. I had been able to wander around without having to look over my shoulder, without hear shouts and echoes of people crying in pain as they fell, clutching wounds, wounds that were most likely going to become infected, that were most likely going to kill them. Yesterday I had felt alive, yesterday I hadn’t realise how panic, how scared I would be today.

Today I ran, scared shitless as the battle roared on around me. I was lost. I didn’t know where I was anymore. I wish I was home, I wish I was safe, safe tucked away in bed. But I was not safe. I was anything but safe, everyone around me wanted my blood, wanted to see me dead, and wanted to see the life drain away from me. I didn’t want to die. So I won’t. Hopefully.
“I’m sorry, I just don’t want to die. Please forgive me.” I chant as I strike out at the tribute who is next to me.
[Attacks: Sword: Akina]
[dice=200+1000]
Deep Gash on Back of Head -- 9.0 damage

picks up: Shin guards