monsters and the kids who become them and the people who fight them

[theguideless]

Date & Time: 9/2 – 9/12, various times
Location: All throughout the city
Characters: See tags
Summary: A lot of people have to put up with an increasingly unstable kid
Warnings: Fightytimes violence, body horror, dead things



IN THE FAR-REACHING FUTURE OF AN ALT-EARTH, MONSTER-BASED ATTACKS ARE CONSIDERED ESPECIALLY RIDICULOUS. IN EXSILIUM, THE DEDICATED TRANSPORTS WHO ENDURE AND INVESTIGATE THESE VICIOUS HAPPENINGS ARE MEMBERS OF AN ELITE SQUAD KNOWN AS EXTRA-UNLUCKY BASTARDS.

THESE ARE THEIR STORIES.


The following threads coincide with the established timeline posted here and are arranged chronologically for participants' use if need/want be.

Comments

9/9, approx. 9PM [KATNISS]

[theguideless]

[effective]

[Katniss hasn't been dealing with things well since the memory event. Every time she closes her her eyes she sees her sister's blank face as she kicks her, over and over. The situation with Peeta hasn't helped either, and Katniss has found herself escaping to the forest to hunt more and more often lately.

It's simple. It takes her mind off what her life has become.

Sounds that definitely aren't made by any kind of animal make her freeze. Setting an arrow to the string, she holds her bow ready, cautiously peering around the area for the source]

[theguideless]

[not my blood. not my blood. not...

it's an almost drunken, swaying walk down there among the trees. so many moving shapes make his breath shorter, his skin tingling with panic...but he smells no blood but what is already on him (not mine) and hears nothing but that rustling of foliage.

what am i doing why is this happening... he can see himself hurting them. Lea and Bariyan and...faces, just faces. they're going to kill me.

he groans, agonized. everything hurts...a tree in his way stops his progress; he puts hands on it and digs his nails - claws – into the bark, the pressure giving him a momentary reprise from their throbbing.

his eyes sting. can't cry. nothing comes out. and it hurts, thinking...]

[effective]

Wh--? [Her eyes zero in on the source of the noise and some part of her dimly recognises him (it) but there are enough changes there that her mind clears of all thoughts except one.

Mutt.

And then there are no thoughts. She acts on pure instinct, loosing her arrow at the thing that once might have been Darkov and then running, crashing through the trees.

There's a city out there. This isn't an arena. If she can reach other people, she'll be safe. She just needs to reach other people. Her heart hammers in her ears, and she throws a look over her shoulder]

[theguideless]

[the howl of pain and outrage follows her, somehow sounding at her heels for its volume. but chase isn't given right away. disoriented and enraged, Martin takes time to stare at the arrow as he pulls it – breaks it – out of his shoulder. why?

why is this HAPPENING–?!


but the drumming begins to thunder again. not just his heart, but hers.

his eyes dilate.]

[effective]

[Her breath hitches and she runs faster. Those howls take her back to the Games, the first ones, where they gave them eyes like the tributes and--

She shakes her head tries to focus on what she's doing. He didn't chase her immediately, that's good, right? Katniss wants to believe that's good. She turns her body and stands her ground, shoots again. Maybe she can take it out entirely]

[theguideless]

[another piercing pain. his back. why–?!

he whirls around, outraged, snapping his gaze toward the shooter. drumming. beating heart. blood.

his mouth split, exposing teeth – they'd gotten longer, sharper, ready to tear...

he sprang into motion, crushing foliage in his way...with his hand down, he conjured his lance and was shot into the air, and as that one became dust, the next one was launched right at her.]

[effective]

[It occurs to Katniss that she's made it angry, because of course she's made it angry. That's just her luck.

She gives up on shooting it all together and just runs. She doesn't see it launch itself into the air, but at this point that doesn't really matter. She doesn't see the lance, either, but she does feel it piercing her side.

A low cry leaves her. She manages a step or two more forward, and then falls to her knees. Her mind races, trying desperately to remember what she knows of first aid, but the monster is probably going to kill her soon anyway. her head hits the ground and she closes her eyes, waiting to die.]

[theguideless]

[he lands not far away, heavy and hard enough to knock the wind out of him for a minute. but he was moving, driven by the scent of blood and the sound of a frantically beating heart – not his own, hers.

it's only when his hand curls on her shoulder, his head dipped down to her face, when he sees her – sees her as a human would, a thing he...perhaps never was.

but it rattles him down to his bones and stops his breath in horror.

again.

it's happened again.

his mouth, still hanging open with expectation, works a little, teeth scraping against each other until the feeling causes him to shudder.

he backs away, reeling, falling over on his rear-end, scooting away, growing more and more panicked. no, no, no...

he turns and crawls away until he finds his feet, running, bolting.

NO!]