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...

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Comments

[cougar]

He went the other way. We didn't speak. [She looks back over her shoulder, as though expecting the angel to appear and prove her wrong. She shivers unbidden at memory of the cold look he gave her, but sets herself stubbornly upright once again a moment later. His suspicion reminds her to voice her own.] And where is yours?

[fideles]

[Figuring out who he can and can't trust is going to be impossible, isn't it? But he can't see any danger in giving this information. Laurence jerks his head back in the direction he just came, never once taking his eyes from the woman.]

Back there. I didn't hurt him any, he just didn't want to come. He said his brother would find him.

[cougar]

His brother... ? Was he... [She lifts her hands to her mouth, shock spreading across her face. Oh, if it is Kol of course he'd send the child away, he wouldn't want this boy stuck with... And she can't deny, either, that her heart jumps at the idea of finding Kol, for that makes it easier for the two of them to find—to be found.

If she has to die, she'll do it by the side of one of the two brothers she loves so dearly. She gives Laurence a serious look, questioning firmly now.] Was he quite ill?

[fideles]

[Laurence's surprise at her words is very plain to see.]

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. [And maybe he hasn't quite shaken that guilty conscience yet, because he blurts the next words in a flustered rush.] He told me to go. I would have stayed if he wanted, I did tell him so!

[cougar]

[With confirmation that it's Kol, her mouth goes wide again and if there wasn't the looming threat on her life, she would have shaken Laurence for his foolishness. Of course Kol wouldn't have said so, that's why she remembers.] Oh, he can't be left, he has a son out there! He'll never live through this alone, oh Kol, why would you...

[She hardly realises that she's started moving in the direction Laurence indicated, her gaze entirely overlooking him in her desperation to get moving again.]

[fideles]

[And away she goes, so very simple as that. Laurence shifts a few steps aside as she passes, making sure they stay wide of one another and then watching until she's long out of sight.

A son, huh...? Laurence sighs, turns, and walks on, rather more vigilant and trying not to think about what his teammate had had to say. He wants his brother to kill him, lady. You wanna explain that to his kid, be my guest.

He has to stop thinking. These people, these games, are going to ruin him.]