martyrs of the cage | {castor/raven} blitz

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umber vivuus 12a 🥀 [dars]
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martyrs of the cage | {castor/raven} blitz Feb 1, 2017 20:56:59 GMT -5

Post by umber vivuus 12a 🥀 [dars] on Feb 1, 2017 20:56:59 GMT -5

Cages were cages, be they iron bars or expansive buildings: walls riddled with dry-rot, or hallways decorated with lavish paintings and ornate gold; holes in the roof or skylights so clear one could have counted the stars.

This cage was beautiful, but I was still trapped within its walls.

The idea that Gavin had been in this hall, that Rowan had slept in this room-- it clouded my vision and made it hard to breathe. But it made me angry.

It reminded me why I was here.

I ignored Jacquelyn's protests on my way to the elevator, acted as if her voice was nonexistent. The doors closed, and I instantly felt better-- like there was some force pushing me down before that was gone, at least for the moment. I took a deep breath in, then another. A pretty cage, but I still wasn't free.

The doors opened, and it was fun to pretend. The girl from the train with the brother and the wild hair was there, fierce gaze meeting my own. She wasn't my friend. No one here was my friend, though, were they? But we were caged together, withheld because of our own choices, but I got the feeling she understood that, for some of us, staying behind wasn't a choice.

"Come on, let's pretend everything will be okay for a second," I called, nodding to the nature station, "I need to get some training in, anyway."

R A V E N ● B A R K E R

Last Edit: Feb 1, 2017 20:57:30 GMT -5 by umber vivuus 12a 🥀 [dars]

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martyrs of the cage | {castor/raven} blitz Feb 4, 2017 2:56:32 GMT -5

Post by Python on Feb 4, 2017 2:56:32 GMT -5

castor karmichael

With every sterile breath she took in the training center, she craved the woodlands even more - the aroma of pine, the dew staining their windows, the birds chirping in treetops she could reach. For six months she had been deprived of her home, of nature and sunlight and stars replaced by suffocating walls. Now it was happening all over again, and she could only place the blame on herself. I panicked, she thought. House reduced to ashes, her voice of reason had resorted to screaming instead. She couldn’t think, she simply acted.

She didn’t want to die so far away from home.

You should’ve considered that.

There were devices in her bedroom that could change the walls into realistic nature scenery. She could see storms, savannahs, forests, and beach shores that nobody in Seven would ever dream of seeing. It was all fake, of course, but it was closest she could be to home. She slept with the walls projecting rainforests. Birds chirped and crickets sang; it was her lullaby.

She could only see the real outside world through a glass window at the top of the training center. So, she visited every morning and every evening. Dawn and dusk. She waited for the pink highlights to fade behind Capitol skyscrapers, then took the elevator back down.

Emerging into a room of fifty-something tributes was not easy.

She sought familiarity among the noise, wandering to the nature station and its implanted trees. They looked and felt real, but she didn’t know how it was possible. One of the girls from the train was there. Let’s pretend everything will be okay? What a laugh, but perhaps it wasn’t the worst advice.

”Good idea. Let’s race to the top of that tree,” she suggested playfully. If anything could distract her, it was a friendly tree-climbing competition.