crossroads // love & ariel

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crossroads // love & ariel Jul 20, 2021 23:26:14 GMT -5

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Post by Python on Jul 20, 2021 23:26:14 GMT -5

a r i e l .

"freedom, oh freedom
like a hearbeast
can drive you mad."

Ariel warned them this time. It was childish to wander off on her own, so she waited until everybody was patched up. "I'm gonna go for a walk," she said, "I won't be far."

She needed space. It was unlike her to drop the cheerful demeanor, but she didn't feel like herself. She was wearing somebody else's skin, casting a broken shadow that was not her own. She waded through the puddles and ignored her distorted reflection in each of them. She walked until she knew she was far enough away to consume the quiet on her own. It was unlike her to cry, she had never touched misery until today. The sobs that wrenched her body made her ribcage ache. She sat with her knees to her nose and poured everything out until she was empty.

The rain could wash away her tears, but not her sins. She cried because of the sound her spear had made, reaching through Nora's skull. She cried because she hadn't seen Nora's face or her final moments.

She cried because the proof had been washed off her spear. There was no blood, and she imagined Nora's soul slithering beyond the edge of the weapon into the abyss. Heart, mind, soul - they were all separate entities, and people acted like it all mattered. Ariel wanted to believe them, and believe that Nora was somewhere existing peacefully.

Maybe that was an excuse to justify her actions. She had done something wrong today, so horribly wrong. The way that boy, Reece, had glared at her; it made her insides stiff and knotted, yet she deserved all of it.

Her cheeks were ice cold despite the tears. She wiped it all away as the rain started to clear. All she needed was this moment to herself, away from the others. She craved comfort, yet she did not want to bother them or force them into reminding her what this place was. A good cry was what she needed, because she was guilty.

She fumbled with her bag until she pulled out the crafting kit again. The bracelet on her wrist was a reminder of where she started, and as much as she knew this was another silly distraction, she wanted it. As she reached for the material, she heard a splash nearby. A quick gasp, and her head snapped up. She couldn't fight this time; she wanted to run.

Her shoulders relaxed when she realized who it was. "Love? What are you doing here?"

She blinked rapidly and didn't provide much of a chance to respond before she spoke again, "I liked the tape you sent me."

elegant

Last Edit: Jul 20, 2021 23:27:01 GMT -5 by Python

pogue
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Is she trying to interrupt our henna session?

crossroads // love & ariel Jul 21, 2021 22:15:01 GMT -5

Quote

Post by pogue on Jul 21, 2021 22:15:01 GMT -5

L O V E

His walks have gradually become more than just a usual reprieve from Julian's playful warnings in the form of interlocked fingers, more than Waverly's voice ringing out far too quiet to be anything more than a chorus to the countdown of her own demise. And he feels it rip up from the pit of his stomach and into his heart when he looks at the two of them, something in the form of stone cold guilt spreading slowly through his veins and up into his brain until it feels as if the latter is going to explode out of his skull in bone and muscle and everything in between.

The walks have become his only saving grace.

That scares him.

His grip on the axe's handle remains tight as he wanders through the trees, eyes remaining alert and muscles tensing every time his foot snaps through the stray leaf or branch. His mind fumbles in on itself, against everything he knows he should be thinking about it pulls forth the final moments of Six, then Evan, then Chad, then Emerson, finally settling on the one thing they all shared between them: red.

So, so much red.

He thinks of the blood as he wanders, the ground groaning beneath his weight as he steps through the still soaked forest floor. It's too late for him to stop his step as his eyes finally rest on the silhouette that finally shows itself through the trees, the splash of a puddle sending his nerves into a tailspin and the axe out in front of him in the hopes to defend against whoever will be charging at him next. When he sees that it is Ariel, it's only his heart that sinks instead. He remembers their conversation in the Training Center, remembers the way his stammering voice slipped into the cassette. He almost wishes that she'd charged him. Instead, her kindness slips through in the form of a question made through shaking breaths. He frowns, chewing on the way his emotions ebb and flow in the middle of his chest, the way he knows that they match hers.

"Same thing as you, I'd guess." He replies somberly, eyes instinctively scanning the treeline for any silhouettes that may be lurking in the shadows in hopes of catching him in a trap. Thinking, the voice in the back of his mind finishes with a venomous bite, reminding him of the very same thing he reluctantly shares with every other tribute in this arena. A voice, a whisper, a conscience against everything they may have thought or, like him, anything he had ever been told. The guilt and the ghosts had crept into his thoughts, slow at first and then all at once in a tidal wave of tear-stained vision and stammering breaths.

And, by the puffiness of Ariel's eyes, he guesses that she is feeling the same way. The realization makes him loosen his grip, ever so slightly feeling the white knuckles wrapped around his axe gradually come undone.

"I liked the tape you sent me."

His teeth fall into one another as soon as she says it, stomach collapsing in on itself and his muscles relax all at once, a deflation and a defeated gaze traveling down towards the grass. He hated those tapes, hated the way they embedded themselves into his memory and made his heart feel ten times heavier, hated the way he'd sat in that forest and let it break him, hated himself for sending them out in the first place, hated himself for falling so far so fast.

He hates a lot of things in this arena, as he'd come to discover. Even yourself, the voice bites at easy bait and he forces it back.

Because it's every part of a torn soul that rips through his veins, the way he wants to spill his heart out again versus the way he knows that he should use this opening to his advantage. A path he's never traveled versus the one that he has worn thin and, in return, has worn him thin as well.

In the end, he chooses neither, steps barefoot into the harsh soil between the two paths and feels the stones and soil dig harsh into exposed skin. "Yeah, happy to be of service..." He starts, letting a small smirk float onto his face.

"Where have those guts taken ya, Ariel?"

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crossroads // love & ariel Jul 22, 2021 23:22:21 GMT -5

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Post by Python on Jul 22, 2021 23:22:21 GMT -5

a r i e l .

"freedom, oh freedom
like a hearbeast
can drive you mad."

She felt like skin and bones. Her guts had been spilled across the forest floor, and she was desperately scrambling to pull it all back in. An encounter with death did not make her feel any stronger, and braver, or any more prepared to do it all again tomorrow. Killing one person would not make killing the next person easier. Guts had driven her spear-first into Nora's fate, and now they were lost.

She tried to wear a brave face for Love's sake. "Somewhere I didn't want to be," she said, every syllable drawn in a shade of blue. Here she was, moping in the middle of the woods after ending somebody else's life. If anyone should be sad, it was Nora and her friends.

"But..." she trailed off, fiddling with her bracelet again, "I'm alive because of it, and so are the others." She shrugged and pretended that she wasn't being eaten alive by guilt. That her soul wasn't changing by the second.

And underneath all of that, she was terrified. Reece's words were a weight crushing her insides, caging any semblance of hope. They could hunt her down like a deer and kill her, or they could hurt Areto and Blade and Avriel. That was the problem - somebody had to hurt them, because at the end of this story there was only one main character. Ariel hoped she would never have to make the choice of who.

Her eyes lingered across the green fabric of her bracelet. It matched the four-leaf clover hanging above her chest; her piece of home. She looked up at Love again, and blurted a question before she had the chance to think about the repercussions. "What are your favorite colors? I have something I can make for you," she released her words with a smile this time, weak but genuine.

elegant

pogue
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Is she trying to interrupt our henna session?

crossroads // love & ariel Jul 23, 2021 16:18:46 GMT -5

Quote

Post by pogue on Jul 23, 2021 16:18:46 GMT -5

L O V E

"Somewhere I didn't want to be."

Ariel's voice reaches his ears in all its melancholy glory and Love grimaces, letting the frown that had become so familiar to him slip back onto his face. He'd grown accustomed to the way everyone he'd met in this arena had been forced to face the same realization he had: that this place was unlike anything they had expected. Even as Ariel tries to justify whatever actions she has taken her body language betrays her, the way she shifts uncomfortably after the shrug as if to ward off the spirits that sit on her shoulders. Love can't see them, but he knows they're there. He knows his own well, as much as he would like to be oblivious to them. They're all haunted here.

Ariel is alive because she has killed someone, he reasons, and now she wears the guilt on her sleeve and her shoulders and in the puffy lines that still mark a territory untrodden around her eyes. It's guilt that laces itself into her words, or maybe it's regret, or maybe it's shame. He doesn't know, and he fights back the voice in the back of his mind that tells him he still knows nothing, even after all of the information he'd gathered on his fellow tributes. He nods somberly at her words. "Has to happen in a place like this." He reminds her, the word death bouncing back and forth in the abyss of his mind.

They were all being forced to carve paths they never would have walked before, barefoot and exposed and feeling the world dig and carve into their flesh as they walk.

"What are your favorite colors?" He cocks his head, "I have something I can make for you."

His instincts fire off one after the other, eighteen years of training screaming at him that something like this is just a trap in the making. Knuckles crack as they run white around the hilt of his weapon for a brief second, eyes darting to the tree line and scanning it for any shadows or guilty souls ready to add to their conscience. The thoughts dissipate in a hollow scream when he sees the innocent smile on Ariel's face, confusion darting across his face at the idea of a friend in a place like this. After a moment, he nods, loosening his grip on the weapon as he ponders his answer.

Red and white, the Bellisario legacy tells him to say. The diamonds branded into his chest burn and howl.

"Uh-" He starts out softly, as if he's unsure of the answer he's giving. Hell, he is.

"Blue-" He'd always loved the ocean, even though he'd never reach it.

"-and... pink." Memories of Vanya holding him down and forcing pink nail polish onto his fingers as a kid run through his mind. He smiles in the nostalgia of it all.

The smile slips from his lips as his heart reminds him of where he is, of what he has to do to get out of here. Furrowed brow and distant look in his eyes, "Ariel.." He says softly, trying to process the torn feelings between friendship and foe. "Why are you.. why are you being kind to me?"

Last Edit: Jul 23, 2021 16:19:05 GMT -5 by pogue

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crossroads // love & ariel Jul 23, 2021 22:26:07 GMT -5

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Post by Python on Jul 23, 2021 22:26:07 GMT -5

a r i e l .

"freedom, oh freedom
like a hearbeast
can drive you mad."

Ariel didn't consider, even for a moment, that she might be in danger. Kindness should be repaid with kindness, or this world would be consumed by a distrustful shade of grey. Maybe she was too trusting in a place like this - Love had even reminded her of where she was, not that she had forgotten. Today was the reality check she never asked for, something she tried to repress.

But if she couldn't trust this moment, then she was destined to die.

She opened wooden box in her hands, eyes searching for his rainstorm blue and sunset pink. Her guard was down. The thought did not cross her mind that Love could be dangerous, despite his career status. There would come a time when she would have to remember his roots, but that time was not now. This was the Love she met under the tree, the one who shared his music and spirit with her. If he was a killing machine elsewhere, she would rather be oblivious until it was too late.

When she stared at him again, she looked puzzled, as if the answer were obvious "Because you were kind to me," she said simply. To her, there was nothing complicated about a friendship. Kindness is repaid with kindness, always. "You sent me a tape, so this can be my way of repaying you." Her hands worked diligently and expertly to weave his threads together. Blue and pink; she wondered what those represented.

She held out her wrist. "It's not much, but you can wear it. See? It matches mine."