WAR GAMES

[shinsengumi]

10...

9...

This year, you will be participating in teams. Your teams, as sponsored, are as follows:

Aeva and Ystelle; Ashleigh and Larsen; Aubrey and Kieran; Brigitte and Ellias; Cabel and Joss; Cyrel and Hollingworth; D'Ivann and Helene; Drael and Kristopher; Griffith and Xian; Fila and Lisette; Indra and Zacharius; Ivy and Reece; Kol and Laurence; Leonel and Solus; Lucinde and Visvaldis; Malis and Vox; Oberin and Odette; Shryke and Siegfried; Talbot and Thane.

Should both members of a team survive, you will both be permitted to leave the arena alive. May the odds be ever in your favour...

2...

1...

Comments

[fideles]

[The brother, the stronger looking one... The thought of them reuniting out here isn't something he can find very comforting, even when he's already been considering searching for Vis in precisely the same way...]

You and your brother won't both be allowed to leave, though. What're you gonna do if he does find you?

[narcotism]

He has always known I will die before him. At least he would give me a respectful end. [He doubts there is anything he could say to convince Larsen to kill him, but he knows there is nothing Larsen could say to convince him to live through this. He will not keep his cursed life for the sake of his brother's or Helene's, and there is nothing waiting for him on the other side should they both die here.]

[fideles]

Then you just want to live long enough for him to find you...

[Can he afford that? To stay and help this man, just long enough for family reunions or the grim revelation offered by a night sky?

... It's a kind thought, but he can't. Every moment they share is a moment where Kol might reveal them, and Laurence has learned very well how much danger exists within his fellow players. He knows too that a good many of them must be keeping cards to their chests, concealing hidden powers that might yet change everything. For now he has to hide, stay as low as possible. Once the field is narrowed, maybe then he can reveal what few cards he has left to play.

That won't work if Kol is with him.]

I'm sorry. [Laurence rises, offering a half-hearted hand should his teammate need help getting back to standing.] You should find somewhere to hide. If I wind up seeing your brother, is there something I should tell him? [Before he kills me, or I kill him? This "game" has barely begun, and already they've managed to mess with his head.]

[narcotism]

[To be perfectly fair, he wouldn't mind dying on his own and saving Larsen the trouble of arguing with him, but he's not about to say that. He can't expect his would-be teammate to live through this, not with Larsen participating and only one or two winners permitted, but all the same, he wants as little to do as possible with the young man's death, and that means telling him only one thing.]

Stay as far away from him as you can. Even if you tell him I sent you away, he won't let you go.

[He ignores Laurence's outstretched hand, instead pushing himself upward with effort and turning his back to the young man to study what he can see of the sky. Careless 'playing', but he was never going to win this game.]