It's a Party! {Feast Day 3 post-mandate; optional}

a v r i e l .

"Sunlight lift me up
Tell me I'm enough
You know that they leave so soon
Just like you"

It takes him longer than it should to realize that Blade has left him, her perch on the picnic table empty beside him.

Something him softens, crumbles, departs, slips beneath a swell, sadness has always come and gone like this, inevitable as a tide gong in and out. He remembers being six years old and standing on the river bank in Nine, wondering why it didn't match all of the things he'd read about water. The water level never seemed to change through out the day, it was always overwhelming.

Avriel sits in that feeling for some time, playing with the fraying ends of the friendship bracelet that Ariel made for him on that first night. The colours are muddled, the message unclear. Above him, the sky darkens and the world sets into night, desperately following the path of the sun.

Claws on his shin.

Avriel looks down to see a tiny grey thing that could be a dog if it wasn't standing on hind legs and wearing clothes scratching gently at his leg.

He stares down at it for a long moment and then raises the back of his hand to his forehead. If he has a fever, he can't feel it anyway.

"Ahhh," he starts softly and then raises his voice to say, "Uhh does anyone else see this?" But when he turns around, Areto is the only one left and she's already leaving too, headed back into the woods and saying something about finding the other two.

Avriel looks back down at the little creature but it's already turned around and started walking in the same direction that Areto has just gone in. His mouth twists into a frown, there's a little bit of fear there, he knows that his next move is going to hurt. His legs hurt even just sitting down and he doesn't want to move anymore today.

But he doesn't want to be alone.

Avriel grits his teeth and places his feet on the ground gently, slowly putting his weight on them and the deep wounds in his legs. "Fucking..." he murmurs quietly to himself. Pain shoots through him, rebounds and comes back down. It feels as if someone has hammered nails into him.

He has to hurry to catch up to Areto. The creature stays just in front of him, waiting for him when he stops to collect himself every few steps. It's frustrating that he seems to be the only one struggling with the pain. He's always thought he was good at dealing with it, he's been walking around with a crown of thorns on his head for months now.

It turns out that he's got limits.

When Avriel arrives to the campfire, he doesn't know where to look first, it's overwhelming. A large roaring fire with candy and sticks around it is eye-catching but then his eyes fall on a little first-aid station and clean water. He stands back in the tree line for a long moment, eyes on all the other tributes, trying to understand what this is. It's not like he ever closely followed the games before but he's pretty certain that something like this hasn't happened before.

It feels like a trap.

Kids are just sitting around talking to each other, roasting little white candies on sticks and sewing up their wounds. The atmosphere is relaxed, the fire so inviting, Avriel limps closer and warms his hands for a moment.

"Get away from her."

He looks up and sees Areto, Ariel and Julian in a standoff. Avriel stills, tensing slightly. This moment of peace could be broken in moments and it feels like Areto is going to be the one to do it. For a moment, he forgets about the pain in his legs and he lopes over to the trio, coming to a stop between them and holding his hands out to either side.

"Stop," he says.

There's not really a plan past that, if Avriel had stopped to think, he would have realized how stupid it was to get in between two careers, but the only thing going through his head is that he isn't ready to lose either of them yet. That, and he's far too exhausted to survive another fight today.

" 𝑰 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐. "

Six wanted to cry when he saw the koala. First he had to kill the cute sheep-mutt and now they wanted him to kill this cuddly bear thing. Or so he thought. After it went up to him it didn't hurt him or even attempt to. Rather, it guided him. He reached out to gently pet it's head and it let him. So soft.

He didn't want to just abandon his allies though, so he called out for them. He was worried about scaring the fuzzy creature off, but luckily it didn't seem spooked, "Thad! Evan!"

No response.

He hoped it's because they had their own fuzzy creature guiding them. The Gamemakers were planning something, he just couldn't be sure of what. In one hand he held the stuffed dog he found in the cabins, but the other rested on his machete - just in case. Once they got to the Campfire Circle, he froze. He was expecting some huge all-tribute battle. But, this wasn't it. It was calm, peaceful almost.

He looked around, noticing Thad and Evan were already here. Then he was relieved to see that Bubby was still alive, despite Mauve telling him otherwise. And then he glanced at Love Bellisario. He hadn't seen him since that night he couldn't sleep in the Training Center. Looks like he wasn't todays cannon shot either.

And it looks like Julian Le Roux wasn't around him. In fact, the only one near him was Liara. He hadn't really met Julian, but he met Emerson once and it didn't end up well. So, he felt like meeting Julian might not be the best idea. He wanted to say something to Love, especially after the last time they spoke. He just had to be quick so their conversation didn't draw too much attention.

He slowly walked over, grip tightening on the stuffed dog. He didn't want to interrupt them. Sure, Liara may not be as scary as a Le Roux, but she was still a Career and Six wanted to avoid getting on her bad side. In fact, she could tolerate Mauve, that in itself meant she was a force to be reckoned with. Once they finished he spoke quietly to Love, not really making direct eye contact.

"Love... are you doing alright?"

"I'm alive, Six. More than I could ask for, I guess. I wouldn't come too close. I'm still a Career and you're still from Eleven."

That sort of hurt to hear, but it made sense. The reason he spoke to him in the Training Center was because it was the middle of the night and no one was around - plus they weren't being televised. Love Bellisario couldn't be seen being too close with the boy from Eleven with a score of three. He understood it, he just didn't really like it. He gave a little nod to the sidelines, but Love made it apparent that them talking in private wasn't going to work either. His feelings of hurt came out in a rare bit of snark.

"I understand, just stay safe. It would be a bit of a bummer if a Career couldn't even outlast a kid from Eleven.".

"Touché."

Love's response confused him for a moment, but once he realised what he meant he was very glad that Julian wasn't nearby. Love thought that the snark was directed at Emerson, rather than him. In truth, Six wasn't even thinking of her. The idea of disrespecting a dead person like that made his stomach churn. He said one last thing to Love before leaving him and Liara.

"I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean it about her.".

Then he walked away. He went to the table, taking and using some of the goodies. Then he noticed a bag of marshmallows. He grabbed a stick and went to the fire, putting the marshmallow on the end of it. After he made a couple of marshmallows he made his way over to Evan, "Evan, want a marshmallow?"