return to hell // ffg vs. wnn // day four

After a time, the adrenaline running through her veins dimmed the pain of the wound. It was still there, but in the back of her mind, compartmentalized and saved for later. For a time, she could somewhat ignore the pain. It wasn't as blinding as before, and she could focus a little more. Her mind was absorbed in the heat of battle, her eyes focus going from Meredith to Cyro, anticipating each person's attack and hoping to block it in time, but her hand was so slippery with her own blood that she knew it would be difficult. She gripped hold of the weapon as tightly as she could with slippery hands, and glared at Cyro.

Before this fight, Jade had no opinion of the boy from eleven. She'd watched the Reaping enough, and heard the rumors. He volunteered and left his son behind in Eleven, but Jade didn't really care about that. How could a girl who grew up with such a broken family care about that? She didn't even know what a real father was, as hers was both cold and distant. Her father was simply there. He existed, he was often cruel and each of the Morin kids were always disappointing him. No, she had no understanding of normal family life and didn't despise Cyro's choice, nor care about it. It was, after all, his choice to volunteer.

Her opinion changed after this fight. She still didn't care about why he ended up in the arena. No, rather she was annoyed. It was obvious to her that because he had Volunteered and had a kid back home, that he felt entitled to win. That Cyro felt that everyone else was somehow beneath him because he was a father, and they were not, and that kind of attitude angered her. Most people went into the arena hoping to survive, relying on their strength and the strength of their allies, and the smart ones knew that everyone in this arena would die and thought for themselves and about how they would get home, but they didn't necessarily feel entitled.

Even Jade didn't feel entitled. Not in the way that Cyro so obviously did. No, she wanted to win. She saw everyone standing in front of her as obstacles, and there were many points in her journey where she tried to think of everyone as objects, or actors in a television show, but she had never felt that she was entitled to win. No, rather she saw the arena as a battlegrounds, a testing grounds, and proof of her own ability. A way to earn her family's love, a way to earn fame, and a way to earn glory for her family and District back at One. She never felt that people should bend their knees and offer their lives to her simply because she existed, but she figured Cyro most certainly did.

Jade wanted to spit at him, at the ground in front of his teeth. She had no respect for a person like that, but she couldn't. Her eyes darted toward Meredith, and she knew that no matter how much she disliked this boy that she could show no disrespect to him. Not for his case, but for Meredith, the girl from Two that she most certainly did respect. She would strike him down, if she could. She would try her hardest to kill him right here and now, but she would not disrespect the boy that Meredith chose to align herself with. She wanted to say something back to him, but she held it in. She wanted to yell at him. Wanted to tell that he wasn't more important because he had a kid back home. She wouldn't.

Instead, Jade chose to ignore him. She closed her eyes, readied her strike and was just about to attack when -

"A mutt! You've got to be kidding me," Arabella's voice. Her eyes darted to the girl, and was half surprised because she just kept talking. On and on, a never ending record that just would not stop. She was so annoying that she found herself rolling her eyes despite herself. If she had a free hand, she would have wished to punch the girl in the face. The idea of using her sword against the girl never occurred to her, which was something she was unlikely to ever understand. Jade found the girl utterly annoying, but she could never bring herself to kill this girl. In fact, she hoped that girl died before Jade could see her again. The last thing she ever wanted was to see Arabella dead, which if she ever took the time to think about, would confuse her. Of course, she doesn't think about it at all just for that reason. Topics like that were best pushed to the back of her mind.

Jade sent the other girl a glare. "Of course, she's a mutt!" She growled. "Look at her, she's wearing a snake crown with snake mutt minions following her around, now does that make any sense at all?" She ground out, almost completely forgetting the fight. "It's obvious the Capitol sent her here to mess with our heads! She's just waiting to gut us in our sleep, and it looks like if you run into one of these mutts, you'd be killed."

Oh. The girl kept going on and on and on, and Jade was beginning to wonder if the girl had a stop button she could press somewhere, because this was getting ridiculous. Her hand loosened on her sword, and that's when she remembered that they were supposed to be fighting and not bickering. She tightened her grip once more, but the girl's words - why didn't she stop?

"My head's in the clouds?" She asked in astonishment. "You're the one so trusting of people that you believe everything they say! Why is it so hard to believe they'd use the people closest to you to stab you in the back?!" Jade wanted to knock some sense into the girl. The last thing she wanted was to see Arabella betrayed by one of her own alliance sent back to kill her after they'd died. She didn't want to imagine the annoying, dreamy girl being fooled by the very people she trusted, and perhaps this reveals one of Jade's biggest flaws: her lack of trust. Whereas, she sees Arabella as too trusting, Jade is the opposite. No one could be trusted. If she couldn't trust family back at home, what were a bunch of strangers she met in the arena? Even Meredith whom she respected and liked, Jade knew could stab her in the back. After all, hadn't she just sent a dagger flying at her?

Wasn't that all the proof that she needed? Her eyes widened as she watched the girl attack, and couldn't help but laugh in slight amusement. "Looks like you're so busy going on and on that you forgot how to aim," Jade pointed out, then gripped her sword once more and struck out against the entitled boy from Eleven.

---

(Jade attacks Cyro with Sword)
3ecS0XSHiIsword
(1169 -- Shallow Cut on Chest -- 4.0 damage)

(Using PTS ReRoll)
sword
(1113 -- Deep Gash on Left Calf -- 8.0(1) damage)