leave a footprint on every island you see {neela 1.5, pt 2}
Jun 28, 2018 15:32:57 GMT -5
Post by Lyn𝛿is on Jun 28, 2018 15:32:57 GMT -5
[Neela does more actions in Maintenance]Neela
Chiffon
∞
and why must a hero die young
not to be gone and forgotten
so I pray for the broken
this is not the end of innocence
∞As if on cue, silver parachutes rain down from the sky. Nothing expensive, like the stuff you saw Careers receiving every year, but it warms your heart nonetheless that - someone cared. Some Capitolite thought you were interesting enough to want to live a little longer, despite your cowardice, despite your measly two in training (and you were certain any other Gamemaker would have given you a 1) - so with that encouragement, you stop pacing the deck of the ship, and get to work.
First, the flag came down. You were taking, little by little, tokens of all you ventured through - the spear of fairytale-wood from the forest, the Jolly Roger that you wrapped around yourself like a cape as you gazed into the distance. They grounded you, kept you attached to symbols of the past just as surely as the paper cranes sitting in the tiny bottle hanging from your neck - they were memories you could return to, even as you grew up and the world moved on.
Yet it still seemed wrong, somehow, seeing the bare mast glaring back at you; even a broken ship deserved to have a flag to tell its stories, to wave to the world. But perhaps -
You can't fix the ship; the damage is too extensive, and you don't have the right materials. You think of moth-eaten wool, of unraveled sweaters - most of the time you couldn't make broken things go back to the way they were before, but you could change them. Make them become something new.
(you'll become someone new)
With the crowbar, you pry off the planks that have not become too rotten to use. You weave the coil of rope between them, in and out, in and out, working the wooden beams to each other until all the rope has run out (it's so much easier to do all this, when you can't feel the eyes of the Gamemakers watching you); with a hard shove, the raft slides down the tilted deck and splashes into the water. The old ship may be disintegrating, but the Jolly Roger flies proudly atop your mast; as you take your position on its deck, your vessel seems almost to develop a mind of its own, carrying you across the waves.
(Every ship needs a name, Neela. What will you name it?)
The Imberline.
lyrics: end of innocence
