TERRACE Draft - Remaining Days

[lucetimods]

Who: All Draftees
What: All hell breaks loose
When: From the 27th to the 1st.
Where: TERRACE!
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post covers the second to sixth day! Be sure to check the info post on the timeline to know what's up. At 2AM on the 27th, the attack will break out while most people are sleeping. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Some random NPC quotes about the island itself.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Comments

[markofthewise]

"Alchemy is the deconstruction and reconstruction of matter. When you roast something over a fire, the meat changes from one state to another. I did the same thing, only instead of using fire to do it, I just altered their molecular state."

He realized, of course, that this was one of the first times he'd really ever gone into scientist mode around her. He tended to stick to things more nature-y around her, as it appealed to his own origins as a hunter. He'd never needed to delve into this side of himself. He was a lot smarter than he usually acted around her.

[stillplaying]

She glanced down at the burned corpse in her hands as he talked, trying to imagine some force - something other than fire - that could do this to a person. From experience, she knew how much it hurt. How having your whole body aflame felt. She had the scars to prove it. But she had survived and her suffering had been long. This cultist's pain and death had been as instantaneous as Prim's.

For a moment, she shook her head. It wouldn't do to think of her sister now. To think of the way she had lit up like a torch. Painful memories like that didn't belong in a battlefield. And as soon as she remembered the loss of another little boy that didn't deserve to die, she looked back up at him.

Even if she didn't understand most of what he had said, she understood what it could do. There was steel, angry resolve in her grey eyes. Grim satisfaction.

"Good. They don't deserve anything less."

[markofthewise]

Well, it was nice that someone understood what he was doing and didn't share that look of surprise and horror in their eyes. He should have known it would be Katniss. She, unlike other people, got it.

"Given what the do to us, it's a shame it only lasts a second for them."

[stillplaying]

She nodded in agreement, unceremoniously dumping the charred body with the others. Then she went back into the circle to retrieve one of the few remaining. Burns were the worst kind of pain. After all the crimes the cultists had committed, after killing a little boy, Sokka was right. It was a shame.

"Too bad the Malnosso won't actually fight alongside us." Isn't that the reason they were here to begin with? The indiscriminate draft that took people like Rapunzel, youth like Henry? People who shouldn't ever be near a battle. "I wouldn't mind tricking them into your snare, too."

[markofthewise]

"You mean the scientists?" The soldiers were fighting with them were technically Malnosso, but try as he might, he couldn't hate them. Those guys were fighting the cultists on a daily basis. Their lives had to be so much worse than the ones they had in Luceti.

He nodded, though. "This trap would be too god for them."

[stillplaying]

She nodded. The scientists and the politicians and especially whoever it was that approved the use of kids in a war. But maybe he was right. Maybe this trap was too good for them.

Thoughts of the 76th Hunger Games come to mind. Did it already happen? Did those damned Capitol politicans finally understand what it was like to watch their children kill each other in an arena? Did they finally understand that it wasn't entertainment in even the slightest form?

"Are you going to set the trap again?" she asked a second or two later as she dumped the latest body. "Can I watch?"

[markofthewise]

With the last of the bodies piled into the pit, Sokka covered it up with a tarp and looked back thoughtfully. Her request surprised him, frankly. Sure, it was cool, but he hadn't expected her to just want to sit there and watch.

"It's already set, but. Are you sure you want to just wait? It could be awhile."

[stillplaying]

Until she had met Gale, her father had set the best snares she had ever seen. There had been pride in that little girl's eyes every time she had come across successfully caught prey. A rabbit caught in a box, a squirrel hanging by its forelimb. Though skilled with a bow, her own traps had never been nearly as good.

But Gale's had outshone them all.

Though she had seen some of Sokka's work in the woods, she had never seen anything that instantly turned its quarry into roasted meat. If a feeling of vengefulness hadn't been enough, curiosity is.

"Yeah," she admitted with a shrug. "I've never seen a snare like this before."

[markofthewise]

"Come over here." Sokka returned to his spot he had been sitting before. He sat down, relaxing his head against the wall, before inviting her over with a wave to join him. With his hand spread out, it was obvious he didn't want her just beside him, but he wanted her beside him.

"You have to keep out of the circle. If I activate it while any part of you is in it, it'll get roasted too."

[stillplaying]

Effie wasn't around to put on a show for, to give reason to pretend to be in any kind of relationship with Sokka. And it wasn't like the Hunger Games either, where playing on the emotions of the audience might save her life and that of Peeta's. Or the facade that had continued afterwards so that fire wouldn't catch and Katniss' act of rebellion in the arena would only be seen as that of a crazy, love struck girl.

None of that had really worked anyway. But when Sokka gestured for her to sit so very close beside him, she did so regardless. She scooted as close to him as possible without winding back on his lap and pulled her knees to her chest.

"I'll keep that in mind," she said, eyeing the circle in front of them as she reminded herself that this wasn't anything like the Nut in District 2. Those men had been innocent victims of circumstance. But the cultists? There was no doubt that they deserved a painful fate.

[markofthewise]

He tucked himself in close, but there was an audience to pander to, and that was the enemy. They needed to look vulnerable. Weak. He wrapped his arm around behind her casually, though not with intent to cuddle.

"They key is to keep quiet. Watch for movement, but don't make it look like you're watching. We're supposed to exhausted and trying to hide, but not doing a very good job of it. If they think they have the advantage, they'll charge in without thinking."

[stillplaying]

Wasn't that the key in any hunt? Keep quiet, don't make it look like you're paying such close attention to your prey least it startles and scampers. She had had more than enough practice hunting in the woods. Keeping quiet and waiting for her quarry to come into closer range.

"Easy," she replied quietly, leaning her head against his shoulder as soon as she felt his arm around her back. But every muscle in her body remained tense, remained ready for that fight sure to come for them. Her eyes closed to slits, mimicking that sleeping manner of Sokka's from earlier. "Good idea, using their arrogance against them."

[markofthewise]

Anyone from the outside might call them rather cute, but Sokka was wired to pounce, every bit alert, despite looking for all intents like he was sleeping. He lowered his voice to whisper.

"They're cowards. They'll take any kill they can get."

[stillplaying]

"A little boy died a couple of days ago because of this." Though spoken as little more than a whisper, the anger in her voice remained obvious. Anger and hatred and disgust. "I don't think he was any older than eleven, even too young to have been in the Hunger Games."

Not that one year made much of a difference. In seventy-five years of Hunger Games, it had been a rare, rare moment for a twelve year old to survive.

[markofthewise]

He showed no sign of real interest or concern. It was a draft. Of course people died on it, young or old. That was just the way it was. Passively he asked: "Did you know him?"

[stillplaying]

She noted the passive voice with interest mostly kept to herself. It wouldn't do to lift her head or quirk an eyebrow. Or even to call him on it. Not in the middle of a battlefield.

"Yeah," she responded instead, musing her head against his shoulder in an action that mimicked sleep. "I was teaching him how to use a bow."

[markofthewise]

"He was from Luceti?" If there was one thing he learned, it was Lucetians protected their own fiercely. They usually had few casualties compared to other enclosures.

[stillplaying]

If only rolling her eyes wouldn't give away their facade. Because she was tempted. What would she care about the other enclosures? Why would she be keeping tabs on any of them? For a moment, she considered that she could have come across it. Could have seen a kid died. But that didn't seem as significant as a boy she knew.

One of their own.

"Yeah. Henry..." Come to think of it, she didn't know his last name. "Do you know him?"

[markofthewise]

He shook his head. "No, I have no idea who that is." He also found himself remarkably uncaring about both the death of this boy and the effect it had on Katniss, though he was aware that he should feel something. He didn't, but he could pretend at least.

"I'm sorry. Were you close?"

[stillplaying]

Close. That was a description she was reluctant to apply to anyone here. Close meant caring, caring more than was really necessary for a basic friendship. It made her uncomfortable. More than she still cared to admit.

"Enough," she said, almost a little dismissively. It was easier that way. Easier to be angry over a death of a child than a death of anyone close to her. "I've only known him a couple of months."

[markofthewise]

"Long enough." Just enough to get attached. He'd been that way with others. It was the trouble about getting to know people here. You got attached to people who will eventually let you down. "How'd it happen?"

[stillplaying]

Eventually let you down. Or left you behind and heartbroken. Or didn't have your back when you needed them most. That was the problem with getting to know anyone, here or elsewhere. It was why she was so determined to keep her heart more guarded from here on out.

And why she hadn't investigated too heavily into Henry's death. "I don't know. I didn't ask."

[markofthewise]

"So you weren't there." Maybe that made it easier. Or harder. He knew, from experience, it was even worse to be there, because you had to live up to your own powerlessness to change things. But on the flip side, it was awful to always wonder if things would've been different if you had been there.

"He'll come back, you know."

[stillplaying]

"Yeah," she whispered, a response to both his statements. Not being there did, in a way, make it easier. It meant she couldn't be held responsible in any way. It meant she couldn't hate herself for not getting to Henry in time. But yet, no matter how many times she told herself that, she didn't feel all that better.

"Hopefully, he won't remember much."

[markofthewise]

"Maybe not anything." He was about to say more, then he held a finger to his lips to quiet her. They'd been spotted. Now it was time to lure in their prey.