king of feℓçade (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shinsengumi) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
kodachi2012-04-21 03:47 pm
shinsengumi) wrote in kodachi2012-04-21 03:47 pm
WAR GAMES
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...
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;
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...
TEAM NINE
They have heard five cannon blasts - one almost immediately, the other four coming as pairs in quick succession. The best case scenario calls for two teams to have been eliminated; the worst, five individuals. If teams have been removed then that brings him - and his designated partner - that small step closer to leaving this deathtrap forest alive.
His partner has proven able. It was Shryke who found their single cache, a length of rope and a snare for catching game. Not the sort of tools to survive conflict, but exactly the sort for staying low and surviving the elements. Their best chance, they've managed to agree. Sieg knows his own lack of combative skill, and Shryke states himself little better. Shryke has also claimed to be denied use of his power - some sort of scouting mechanism shaped in the form of a hawk. Sieg hasn't had much choice but to accept that as true. His own 'blessing' has never been something to function on command.
(Is it possible, then, that he... is well? Whole? Have they spared him his sickness? ... It doesn't matter. He won't live long enough to be sure. He doesn't need any special power to know the foolishness of reaching toward that future.)
They've found a place to settle, far from perfect but better than two other options they'd decided to pass by. It's grown late enough now that to continue searching might prove more harmful than use. Tomorrow they can find a better shelter, somewhere to camouflage and hide. Tonight, they settle here, and hope no follow competitors seek to remove them under cover of darkness.
Not that they will rely merely on hope. Shryke has offered to take the first watch, and Sieg has no reason to contend. It's an arbitrary choice, which of them sleeps sooner, rises later. They will both lose half the night, some way or another. Once they have found their chosen spot he doubts they will do much at all, save sleep and guard and check their solitary trap for the meagre comfort of food.
It's been agreed in silence, though, that neither of them will sleep until the first announcement has aired. Shryke has people here, Sieg knows, although no one he's chosen to elaborate on. They mean enough that the otherwise cautious boy hasn't taken his gaze from the sky for the past twenty minutes. They are seated, not together but close enough - they are a team by force, not by choice, and although Sieg has no issue with his partner he can't look at Shryke without seeing the injustice of their situation. They will be professional, he's sure, and little else. If Shryke needs to spend these minutes in daunted anticipation, then Sieg can be professional enough for both of them. It seems a small concession.
It finally begins with a fanfare, short and blaring, cutting through the false peace of this twilit atmosphere. Then the faces are shown, grim snapshots taken in the hours before their entrance into the arena, and there's a twinge of sick comfort to see that it was two teams, and then the last fatality is displayed.
He's so fucking pale. It's obvious when he's projected up there, white skin too stark against a deepening purple night. The pictures weren't meant to portray emotion. They had been told to stare ahead and remain placid during the process, and Sieg had done exactly that. But it seems to him that there's a faint tug to those lips, a glint to those eyes that's both cynically amused and furiously caged.
Then the broadcast snaps to an end, and Xian is gone.
Perhaps Shryke is relieved now. Perhaps he's mourning. Sieg can't be sure. He can't turn away from the gaping emptiness that Xian had occupied just moments ago. Even when he rises to his feet he can't look away, can't focus on the sudden labouring of his lungs, the ache in his skull. His hands are shaking, but his legs are steady. They can carry him, yes, his legs can carry him, and Sieg finally tears his gaze away. The clearing is crossed in four smooth strides, and when he slams his fist against the oak he hears more than feels the crack of breaking bone. Pain reaches him with the second blow, and afterwards he'll claim it as the reason of his single grieving cry. Shattered fingers to account for his rage; to account for the constriction in his chest, the nausea, the overwhelming dizzying rush of not having done enough, of never having done enough.
Sieg drops first to his knees and then slouches into sitting, curls forward to shelter his bleeding knuckles, and then it's over. He's dry-eyed, tight-lipped, and his furious glare is unfocused, distant, lost.
There is nothing he can do; that space is empty now. So too must be the emotions that accompanied it.]
no subject
Sieg has broken something. Or perhaps, something has broken in Sieg. He hasn't known the other man long, and would hardly claim to know him well, but he... can't leave him alone. He can imagine how much this moment hurts, having a loved one stolen away for the enjoyment of some sick distant 'audience', and knowing they were crippled from their own sense of self, with their natural-born powers stripped away.
He does look to the sky once more, this time with longing. Then he sighs softly to himself and moves across the clearing, crouching at Sieg's side. He hesitates a long moment before gently laying two fingers on the other man's shoulder. His words are low, careful, an invitation to speak.]
I'm sorry. Who was it... ?
no subject
Sieg glances over, first at the fingers rested against him and then to Shryke's eyes. It's a fair question, and fair concern. What a melodramatic display he's given. How fucking amusing they'll all find him, watching safely from their homes, their beds. Perhaps Xian would be laughing loudest of all.
Fuck. It's just Xian. It's only fucking Xian. He doesn't-- he didn't fucking care about Xian.]
No one. [He turns his face back toward the forest, continuing in a low, shallow voice;] He was only ever no one.
no subject
no subject
You believe he mattered to me? I didn't think about him once today. I wasn't... [...prepared for this. The bitterness of it shudders through Sieg, tart and sharp, burning his eyes. This is guilt, isn't it. This is shame.]
He's... [But what else is there to say? What can he possibly say...?]
no subject
[Shryke points it out softly, before settling back on his ankles and crossing his arms over his knees. He muses for a time, all the while watching Sieg, and then offers a more extended monologue. It's probably going too far, but he thinks maybe it'll do Sieg good to hear it—the other man doesn't seem able to say much.]
If he was the one who died first, he probably didn't think about anyone else, either. He either had to defend himself, or he wanted to die. Griffith wouldn't have started it, but it's easy to make him angry.
Who else are we supposed to think about, when we're all trying to live? We can put them all from our mind because we need to survive, and it's easier to imagine doing that if we don't think we have to fight people we love.
Maybe you didn't love him. But you're going to miss him, aren't you? He's gone now, and you didn't think about that before.
no subject
Only, the boy is right about one thing. He will miss Xian. He doesn't have a choice. His fingers are twitching pain and every little flinch from this self-inflicted hurt is going to have Xian all over it.]
He was intelligent. Uneducated, but... [But what? Why is he even talking? And what is he saying? It's too fucking soon to be romanticising like this, he has never once considered Xian in such a favourable light. But it is true, isn't it? He's just never seen it before now.
The words keep coming, low and soft and unbidden.] When it became obvious how sick I was, and how suddenly it could come upon me, my parents grew nervous of letting me stray far from their sight. So growing up I spent a lot of time under tutelage. I used to read. I'd read any book I could lay my hands on just to pass the time. I'm educated. I didn't have a great deal of choice.
But that didn't matter with Xian. He always had ways to make me feel stupid. [Has he ever admitted that before? Sieg chuckles, short and wry and grim, the bitter amusement coming through in his words.] And he'd laugh. If he were here now, he'd laugh at this. He'd want to know how it always manages to be about myself. He'd call this self-pity.
[And if he goes on much longer, Xian won't be the only one laughing. Sieg closes his eyes, presses his forehead to one raised knee.]
I apologise for causing a scene. If you'd rather not burden yourself with an injured teammate, I understand.
[It sounds peaceful, staying here alone. If he keeps his eyes closed long enough someone will find him, maybe keep him from opening them again. How's that for self-pity, huh, Xian...?]
no subject
We're teammates. You don't have to apologise. Do you want to watch first? I'll try to sleep if you don't think you can.
[He wonders if he'd react the same to one of his friends dying. He thinks he might manage to do worse. He doesn't say the thought Sieg's drawn from him, speaking about his Xian: That this person Sieg's going to miss sounded interesting, if nothing else. And that Shryke thinks maybe he could understand why Sieg will miss him, if he'd ever had the chance.]