Twisted Minds (Rick)

[Daze]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Briar gave Kanna a strange look. Okaaaaaaaay, she knew Kanna had been babbling about something earlier—but this was a little extreme. She half opened her mouth to say something stupid like if Kanna had hit her head harder than they thought—but for some strange reason didn’t say anything at all.

So… with trying to earn the elven man’s trust, and not wanting to rebuke her ally at such a crucial moment, Briar was left to improvise. “Well, yes. Mr. Scientist guy is our head-gamekeeper,” she offhandedly spoke, voice sounding quick and slightly uneven as she always did hen making something up and trying not to lie. (Which was very hard to do, by the way. “He, um, brainwashed many people into liking these games that he creates every year. He takes kids, about my age, a little younger, and older—and um, puts them into an arena to fight to the death. Which makes Mr. Gamemaker a creep who wants to watch kids kill each other.”

Briar inhaled deeply, and again built ontop of Kanna’s words, silently vowing that if they got out of this—she was really going to have her ally’s head checked. “We don’t like them, they don’t like our parents—so they send us in an arena to kill each other—and obviously didn’t care who already lived in the place he wanted an arena.”

“…to at least start to make it up to you?”

By the strange look in Raelon’s eyes—Briar would’ve facepalmed if she wasn’t holding her breath and frozen like a statue. Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god—he’s gonna kill us.

Instead of pulling out a dagger and knifing them right there, Raelon lowered his voice a notch and spoke in a rapid tone, narrowing his eyes. “Even if I did believe your… story—I couldn’t do anything about it. I’m the leader, and I ‘decide’ your fate,” Briar didn’t like the way he empathized ‘decide’, “but I really have no say based on your story. We’ll put you on trail—and you aren’t going to like it.”

Trail? Well, that was better than being knifed.

Raelon saw the look in her eyes, of relief, and sighed immensely, bending down slightly. “And by trail—I don’t mean judge and jury. I mean a trial of strength, spirit, and wits,” he paused, giving a mournful glance to the sky. “It is an impossible task—and you will only complete it if you have the approval of Aetnth-‘ray. She will see the purity of your heart, if you speak the truth. If you speak flasly, she will let you die in the challenge. If you speak the truth, she will alow you to pass.”

A pause, where Briar gaped, and Raelon peered past her—before locking eyes dead again. “All of you.”

Briar turned.

Well, crap.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin took a fighting stance. It was a subconscious thing, so it didn’t look too horrible—it was one of the best offensive waterbending stances she had come up with back in the real world. Unfortunately, this fake-world Lin wasn’t the best at fighting, more of clever tricks and traps. So, the odds of her lasting in a fight with a fully trained elven master?

Slim.

How about two elven masters?

Very slim?

How about twenty?

Er, None.

Well, at least she was honest.

Lin gave an obscure glance at Rick, trying to catch his eye—maybe they could jump off the cliff and escape. It wasn’t that far of a drop, and wouldn’t hurt that much. Well, actually—it would nearly rip their skin off—but it was better than bleeding it out on the sand.

Unfortunately, Rick wasn’t even looking at her, the idiot. He was looking off to the side with a weird look in his eyes. No… wait, what was he doing? It looked like he was… listening…

And then he raised his hands up to surrender.

What?!

Lin stared at him in shock, near disbelief. Rick did not come up as the type of person to surrender. No, no—in fact—she knew he wasn’t one to surrender. She stared at him for a good full ten seconds, disbelieving—wondering what the heck was wrong with him.

Yet not taking her eyes off him, yet somehow trusting his sudden change of judgment, Lin slowly raised her arms up into the air until they were above her head. Surrendering.

And she didn’t move her eyes, even when she felt the tip of an arrow pressed hard against the back of her neck.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS

and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

[/right]

She shoots Briar a strange look of her own, which quickly deepens into a frown as Raelon goes on to speak about the trial. Well. That's certainly not good. Briar's already lied, and they've only been in this clearing for a few minutes.

Kanna almost opens her mouth to tell the Elven Leader that Briar's still brainwashed, but then she doesn't. How weird would that sound? And how would she even say it? Instead, after looking shell-shocked for a minute, she asks in a wavery tone--

"What do we have to tell the truth about, if you don't mind my asking?"

RICK FREEDOM

i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run[/right]

He stands still. Very still. Like, hardly even breathing still.

A spearhead presses into the small of his back and a… thing… walks in front of him. It's about ten feet tall, with the darkest skin he's ever seen. The face is very angular, with high cheekbones and deeply sunken eyes. The hands of the thing are slender, almost feminine, though the thing is most definitely male.

Without saying anything, the thing turns and walks off into the forest. As the spearhead digs deeper into his back, Rick has to choice but to follow, docile as a lamb.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Well, Briar hadn’t technically lied because she whole-heartedly believed everything she was saying. Sure, she had some doubts—but as many doubts about herself as a normal human does. Except—Briar wasn’t a normal human. She wasn’t even human for that matter!

Then Kanna asked a question, and Raelon stood straight with a serious voice, “Your story. If your story is true—then you needn’t worry. If your story is true, but your heart black—then you should worry indefinitely. If your story is true, your heart on-the-lines of fine gray, and your wits slow—you will unlikely survive.”

Briar blinked. So, this was like decided by the goodness of their heart? By, Briar inferred, this clan’s god? Well, that gave them little chance of surviving. If this test really was a test of the heart, and of truth, then Briar had an okay chance. If this was a test that was supposed to be of a pure heart, but was really impossible—then she was screwed.

But whatever.

Briar turned to watch Rick and Lin being marched across the clearing again, hence the narrator ending her last post with a ‘Well, crap.’—and both Briar and Raelon waited patiently for the two tributes to be brought over to the circle of funness.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Like Rick, Lin marched very, very carefully. It was like walking on eggshells. If she jerked too far back while walking, then the arrow being held firmly to her neck would increase in pressure. If she walked too fast, then the elf behind her would walk quicker to compensate which would be bad once Lin slowed down. She was very, very tense—incredibly careful of where she put her feet.

Once they entered the clearing of the elves, Lin gave a huge sigh of relief as the elf removed the arrow. She finally had the courage to gaze around and find that Rick was slightly behind her.

Then, one of the elves pocked her with the end of their spear—Lin tensing up all over again, and she found herself marched over to where Briar and Kanna were staring up at a rather good looking elf. Not that Lin cared at this moment—she was more concerned with the fact that she was most certainly going to die.

The other elves retreated, and Lin found herself uncomfortably staring up at the elven leader. She was quickly introduced by Briar, and then filled in on the matters of the trails. Of course, none of this was as easy said as done—there was the matter of banter, anything Rick was bound to say, and then the uncomfortable silences of course. Lin wasn’t saying anything herself, however—she had drawn back into the back of her mind and observing. Studying her fellow tributes, and the elves. Any details that might be useful later on.

Then the trails were explained. The four tributes were each handed a strange, long, ten-sided dice. Interesting. Each side of the dice had a small picture inscribed upon it—and the tributes were instructed to roll the dice. Then, whatever side the dice was rolled on—that was the trail they were to face.

Lin studied her dice carefully—wondering if there was any way to roll it in her favor. Nothing. It wasn’t damp, it was a hard wood, and Lin wasn’t keen to cover it in sweat (it wasn’t hot out anyways, rather cold). So, shrugging slightly—Lin flicked the dice upwards, and watched as it landed on…

An arrow.

Lin smiled faintly. Unless her objective involved dodging arrows—this was a favorable outcome. District Niners were the hunters, after all. Quickly, Lin glanced over at Briar’s dice to her left. (it had rolled closest to her own).

Briar looked pale as she stared down at her dice, and Lin, following her gaze—found her dice glaring up at her with a small carving of a wave. Water.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS
and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

Kanna swallows hard. They're having the goodness of their souls tested by some magical god? Well. That's certainly not the most ideal situations. Kanna'd never really bought into the whole 'higher being' thing, but she wasn't an atheist either-- no, she believed more that you never really know what's 'on the other side' until you get there. (Meaning, die.) So this test will be interesting, to say the least.

She turns slightly at the sound of footsteps. Her other two allies. They don't look too worse for wear though-- Rick must have followed her advice and given in. But now they have to go through with the trials as well. Kanna turns back around, only to have a long, wooden die thrust in her face.

With shaking hands, she tosses her die, feeling it's name as oddly appropriate. (die. heh.) It rolls once, twice, three times in the air, and then lands. It wavers for a second on a corner, then falls. Looking back at her is a cloud that looks oddly like a cartoon's thought bubble. Her eyebrows crease. What? Her test is thoughts??

And then it hits her-- dreams. Even back at home, with nothing to terrify her other than the horror movies her dad had shown her as a small child (one at seven, the other at eleven. not many, but enough.) and her favorite Science Fiction program, she had these dreams that scared her senseless. They didn't come every night, but it was often enough to make her dread dreaming. Being a telepath helped the terror grow a bit-- she could see the fears of other people too.

Her heart skips a beat.

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

He feels a slight twinge of guilt as he sees Kanna and Briar (the former looking slightly green, the latter, well… The narrator can't think of a word to describe her right now.) Why guilt? Who knows? Certainly not the narrator, even though she's the one who wrote it. (Though she really should be getting ready for school.)

Anyway. Guilt is what he feels, that little twinge deep in your stomach that says 'ooh. this is all my fault.' even though this couldn't possibly be his fault. The two of them ran away from the ambush, and directly into the tr-- oh. He was the one who told them to run. But they had a choice, right? …Right??

He's about to open his mouth and demand they be let free when the tall dude (freakishly tall. For once in his life, Rick feels short.) starts talking in an extremely formal sort of way. The next thing he knows, some weird sort of die is thrust into his hands and he's being told to roll it.

So he does.

It drops onto the ground and, when the dust clears, he bends down to look at it. The side is… Blank? What?? (What the boy doesn't know is what the challenge really is, and how much he's going to hate it. The elves are (somehow, haven't worked this part out yet) going to take away his powers, lock him into some sort of a room or cave or something, and make him face his fears. All of them. At once.)

Rick pops back up and looks around at his companions-- Lin looks slightly happy, Briar looks freaked out, and Kanna looks like she's about to be sick.

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Water. Briar frowned—trying to look slightly amused and confused at the same time. Which, up until recently, the narrator thought was the word bemused—but apparently it isn’t. Anyways, Briar was really trying hard not to… to what? Burst into tears? Appear too cocky? It was a hard feeling to explain. At some level, Briar was almost certain she was going to die—hence the whole bursting into tears thing. Then, at another level—was a cocky confidence and ‘glass-half-full’ thing. It was a typical teenager ‘I’m immortal’ sense mixed in with Briar’s overly confident and competitive personality, as well as a hint of a strategist. Of course, then there was the confusing part where Briar wanted to shrug it off. Water. Sure. What the heck? It’s not like I have any other special talents.

But that was just it. She couldn’t swim. So—where was the whole shrugging thing coming from?

Then, there was the absent-minded phase, and the maybe-I-should-bolt-for-it phase, and the denial, the ‘why me?’, and all that fun stuff that just made Briar shut her thinking down completely and start coming up with a story—her final defense mechanism at sheer overwhelming status of her position.

My name is Bri—ar. I am fourteen years old. I am in the Hunger Games. The girl chanted in her head, blocking everything in the world out as she peered around at the other tributes dice—wondering what book she was copying from, it was too familiar to be original.

And so, Briar stared off blankly into space—acutely tuned out to the entire world (with great practice)—while Raelon lifted his head up and spoke.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin was also not showing much emotion at the moment. Like Briar, she had activated her own defensive mechanism—but she was activating it for less than personal overwhelming.

So she watched herself from the inside, Lin did. Carefully observing. Kanna looked like she was about to throw-up, and Lin studied her die for moment, thinking of possibilities for the cloud. Flying? Was Kanna afraid of heights? Or, what was another genetic thing for clouds?

Lin sighed faintly and wished she could read minds.

Rick looked utterly baffled, and the girl could understand. There was nothing on his side of the die. Nothing. Maybe Rick had ‘gotten the favor’ of these Gods, and rolled nothing. Maybe he was let off the hook.

Secretly, Lin doubted that—but there was always hope.

Briar was just staring off blankly into space, looking unconcerned as she shuffled her feet. Lin blinked once or twice—realizing after a few seconds that the younger girl was thinking deeply, otherwise they would’ve locked eyes before then. A small wave was carved into her die—no, wait. What was inside the wave? Lin’s brow furrowed, and she peered closer at the die—only to be interrupted by Raelon as he scooped up the dice and pocketed them.

“Young Kanna will face the trial of dreams,” He announced proudly, like it was some honor. Maybe Kanna had gotten off easy. Lin raised an eyebrow, finally getting what the cloud meant, still saying nothing or doing nothing of importance as the narrator conveys to her fellow author that she is welcome to edit this post if the narrator had gotten the dream thing wrong.

“Young Briar will face the trail of the Spear-Eel.” Lin also nodded faintly again. So there was something in the wave—unless they called water, or waves, or beaches Spear-Eel. Briar was lucky in Lin’s personal opinion; she had the water to help her. Or, not—since that was Lin’s power.

“The tallest one will face the trail of the Cave of Nightmares,” Raelon announced next, gesturing towards Rick. Like it could be anyone else. Hmm… Nightmares. Maybe Kanna and Rick would face this together—that wouldn’t be too bad.

“And you,” Lin stared beadily back at the finger that was guestured towards her, wondering if she was supposed to flinch or act scared at this point, “will face the trail of dire.”

Dire. Hm.

“Like direct hit,” Lin said flatly, looking unimpressed by the puzzle that had take her about two and a half second to figure out—the first time she had spoke in several minutes.

Raelon blinked, looking faintly surprised, “Er, yes.”

Lin didn’t comment again.

The elven man stood up all, gesturing for several of his men and women to come closer. “It is time for you to face your trails. Separately. If you succeed, you will be returned and treated like guest of honor.” Raelon paused, looking stonily serious. “If you fail… may Aetnth-‘ray have mercy on your soul.”

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS
and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

Kanna wraps her arms around her stomach, wanting to scream, to cry, to slam her fists into Raelon's chest until he stops the madness, but she doesn't. It's not her way. Instead, she pulls all the bad feelings into a tiny little ball and tucks it into the pile of other bad feelings in a corner of her mind.

When the elf speaks, she shudders. That slight chance that she was wrong about her trial was gone now. And that hint to his voice? Was it… Pride?? How dare he?! He has no right to be proud about the thing that will most certainly be her death. She has half a mind to straighten up to her full height and snarl in his face, but that's not her way either.

Raelon speaks again, and she trains her oddly pale green eyes on his dark face.

"Good luck, young ones."

An elven woman places her hand on Kanna's shoulder, causing the young girl to jump. The woman makes a shushing noise, which oddly calms the blonde. The woman offers her hand. Kanna takes it, and the woman pulls of off toward one of the small shack-like houses.

Once inside, the woman speaks. Her voice has an accent that sounds vaguely French.

"Young Kanna, do not be afraid. Aetnth-‘ray is merciful and kind, but you will have to be strong. If you are killed in the trial, you will die in reality as well."

Kanna nods, not trusting her voice.

The woman pulls the younger girl over to a couch that looks suspiciously like a something you would see in a therapist's office and motions to her to lie down. Slightly hesitantly, Kanna does. The elf sticks a little suction-cup-thing to the girl's forehead, and she finds herself drifting off into darkness…

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

Cave of Nightmares, huh? Well, that'll be fun. Real barrel o' laughs. The other trials… Well, he can't really know how they'll go, but he just hopes, for their sakes, that it won't be too bad. Losing one of his allies so close to the beginning of this competition thing would really suck.

Before he can say anything (not even, 'good luck, guys!'), he's stuck with a needle. He whirls around to shoot a blast of energy at the (word I'm not going to write) who had the nerve, but as he opens his hand, nothing come out. His eyebrows knit together. What happened? What did they stick him with?

He's about to open his mouth to say something, but then his eyelids get very heavy. Rick sways on his feet, for a second, and then collapses to the ground...

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Briar suppressed an urge to yelp as Rick crumpled. Her stomach twisted and clench—and the girl had to clench her fists until they turned snow-white to stop herself from moving forward and trying to catch him before he fell. Instead, she turned her head away wearily—not wanting to be given the same fate. There was no cannon—so it was likely Rick was okay, that he just was, er, coaxed into sleep.

Yes, sleep. That was it.

Luckily, (or unluckily, you decide) the second she turned her head—Briar came face to face with an elf maybe a foot and a half taller than her, brandishing another needle (that looked suspiciously like a sea-urchin spike)—and the girl took one huge step backwards—holding up her hands in a classic, ‘I don’t bite, please don’t kill me’ gesture.

“I’ll walk,” Briar said appealingly, eying the needle warily. Her eyes flickered back to the elf in front of her, which hardly looked older than herself, “Please. Please. Pleeeease. I really would prefer not to take a nap at the moment—I’ll walk. I won’t try to escape—I swear.”

“You won’t make it all the way.”

Briar eyes showed signs of surprise at the elf’s voice, she hadn’t really expected them to talk—just like executioners. She coughed, once twice, frantically trying to gather her thoughts to make a reply. Finally, “I, uh—” Briar threw a frantic glance behind her, looking for any one of her allies for inspiration. To her utter dismay—neither Kanna, Rick, or Lin were in sight—making Briar squeak slightly in alarm.

Finally, inspiration hit her, and Briar found her words again. “You saw their powers?” She challenged, almost confidently. “How they can fight? Well, I fight too. But instead of moving water, or hearing your thoughts, or… or…” What was Rick’s power? It was difficult to explain. Energy… energy what? “…I am strong. I am fast. I am… er, superhuman!” Briar finished proudly, staring up at the elf, who had a slightly amused look on his face.

“You won’t make it all the way,” he repeated, amusement vanishing, fingers itching on the needle. “You humans will need to stop and rest, we don’t stop side to eat—and we only do that once the entire journey.”

If Briar was smart, she would’ve stopped there. She would’ve just said, ‘hit me’ and had it done with. But the girl was proud, and irritated that they underestimated her—plus, the concept of unconsciousness was not appealing. Briar was too confident in her abilities, plus she had no idea how far away this area she was to go to.

She didn’t realize that the journey was three days long.

The elf stared down at her with a serious face. Finally, he nodded, and Briar found herself trekking through the woods in what seemed to be a pack of elves—managing to keep up to their slightly fast pace for the first few hours. She sped up when they sped up (struggling, but managing), slowed down when they did (gratefully)—and devoured the food that they gave her after the first day and a half.

They walked.

And walked.

And walked.

Briar was superhuman, and she probably did last a lot longer than those elves predicted. But, Briar, like everyone (but Rick, it seems), does have a limit. She started to fall behind late into day two. When it first got dark, her feet stung where the leather was constantly rubbing against her skin—and her muscles locked up and felt as heavy as rock.

This is a new low, karma, Briar hissed to herself, struggling to jog when the elf from before (whose name was Quile) looked over his shoulder and told her to hurry up. What did I do to deserve this? How long is this friggen’ journey anyway?

And she walked, managing to keep within the center of the elves—not too far behind, not too far ahead. Just there. Walking.

And on the beginning of day three, Briar glanced up at the stars. They seemed wrong somehow. In the wrong places, too bright—too dramatic. Before, Briar would’ve squealed and thought them as beautiful—but now they mocked her. Telling her that this wasn’t her home, this would never be her home—the stars weren’t even the same.

And then the stars blurred together and Briar fell asleep.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

And days before Briar fell asleep, Lin had watched in… in what, horror? As her allies disappeared one by one. Kanna, led off to the side and into a hut—Briar slowly pushed backwards without even realizing it—and then Rick falling over with a confused look in his eye.

Lin darted forward, managing to snag an arm of Rick’s before he knocked his head on the rock below. That could kill, Lin knew very well, and she struggled for a moment before lowering Rick back down as slowly as possible.

Then, with a pang, Lin quickly looked away and took several steps back—with her arms carefully removed from her pockets and glancing around every few second. She gave a scathing look to a nearby elf who was approaching with another needle, and despite her puny size compared to him—the elven man took one step back and shot an uncertain glance at Raelon.

To Lin’s utter disappointment, she apparently had not intimidated the elven leader—as he eyed her with a twinkled in his eyes. Lin huffed in a wordless response, why was everyone laughing at her today? Surely she was at least slightly intimidating.

Raelon dismissed the man with the needle, and turning to Lin, he said, “You’ll need clear head—and I see no point in knocking you out if you are cooperative.” A pause, then, “You will be cooperative, won’t you?”

“If I see fit.”

Raelon laughed.

And Lin felt something sharp pierce the back of her neck.

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS

and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

[/right]

Her task is different-- instead of leading her to a specific place three days away like Briar (thankfully), all they had to do was put the suction on her forehead and she slipped off into dreamland.

Hers is a trial of the mind and spirit, not of the body. Everything she has to do will be imaginary, except if she dies, she's really dead. Not to say that the others can't be killed-- no, they most certainly can. But, unlike the girl who is now sleeping calmly on the cot, they won't be, in a sense, killing themselves.

Everything that she's going up against will be from her own imagination, all of the childhood terrors and the nightmares that had haunted her late into her teens. Her enemy will be herself, and her own overactive imagination.

But what the elves don't know is that she has a secret weapon-- she brought a gun to a knife fight. As a telepath, she can (if she remains lucid in her dream, that is) call out for help. To Rick, Briar, or Lin, or even Mr Markswell. Hell, if she wanted to, she could cry out for her mother. (Which she just might do-- no one calmed the girl quite like her mom, on those rare occasions when she actually let her weakness show.)

But for now, there's nothing she can do but let the Trials Begin…

Kanna wakes in her most recent nightmare. She recognizes it immediately-- the tall room with pictures leering at her from the walls. The dream begins with her rising up the room, spinning around to look at the portraits as she does so. When she gets to the top, there is only one painting-- her family. It's the one from their Disney cruise when Kanna was still so young. They're all sitting on a couch, and Kanna's wearing her Belle dress from Beauty and the Beast. She smiles at the memory. And then she's falling.

The walls blur together, into one greyscale (Did I mention this specific dream is in black and white?) blob. She hits the ground hard, harder than she remembered in her actually dreaming of this dream.

Stars dance in front of her eyes as she gasps for air. This is definitely not the dream she remembered-- too real. Too acutely painful and real… But there still isn't color. There won't ever be real color, but it won't remain black-and-white for the rest of the trial either. No, Kanna's dreams are in color, sort of-- muted color, like she's in a room with the lights off.

Kanna pushes back to shaky feet, dreading the next part of this dream, knowing without thinking what's coming up. (She's visited this particular nightmare so many times that it's almost as real as the real world-- and it's always the same. And she always dies at the end of it.)

In the blink of an eye, the girl is sitting at a desk, perched uncomfortably on the edge of a metal folding chair. In front of her is The Ghost Girl-- an almost transparent rendition of a ten-year-old girl, and a common appearance in quite a few Kanna Williams nightmares.

"That's the deal. What do you say?" says The Ghost Girl, smiling that awful Cheshire Cat smile of hers.

Something about this situation, though it's not scary in the traditional sense of the word, terrifies Kanna out of her wits. Maybe it The Ghost Girl, or maybe it's just what she knows comes next, though that's not horror film material either.

"W-Well, that's certainly a very fair offer, but I'm afraid that I c-can't take it right now." Kanna stutters, and then blinks.

When she opens her eyes, The Ghost Girl has flown fifty, sixty feet up into the air, her sweet ten-year-old face contorting into something different, something that looks like a Halloween mask, caked with dried blood, eyes bugging out of her head. "No one backs out on my deals!" the girl screeches.

Kanna tries to run, but her muscles aren't responding. She closes her eyes and prepares for the inevitable…

RICK FREEDOM
i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run

Smart elves, these ones are. Rick's certainly not going to just go without a fight, or let them stick him full of needles. So catching him off guard was the best thing to do, both to administer the medicine that disables his power and renders him completely unconscious at the same time. Luckily, they're both in the same little sea-urchin prick. The unconsciousness is just a side effect of it, but what it really does it shuts down that certain part of the mutant's brain that allows them to be mutants. It doesn't hurt-- much.

Rick wakes up in a cave-- Cave of Nightmares, remember?-- all alone and completely in the dark. His head pounds. He pushes to his feet and tries to summon one of his floating red light balls. Nothing happens. He opens one of his hands and tries to shoot a beam of light from his palm. Again, nothing.

Suddenly, a fire roars to life behind him. He whirls around, and walks toward the flames as a female voice speaks from above.

"Welcome to the Cave of Nightmares. I am a computer interface designed to make your stay here more beneficial. If you have any questions, ask them now, as the first fear will start in sixty seconds."

He gapes at the fire. Isn't this a bit advanced for a tribe of elves hiding in a forest? When he finds his voice (fifty seconds later), he says--

"How do I get through each fear? Is there something I need to do to go on to the next one?"

The interface takes a moment before it responds, as if thinking. "Each fear is different, and as such has a different way to be overcome. You will face all of your fears, one at a time, and you will not be able to use your mutation to help you in any way. Good luck, Rick Freedom."

The fire flickers out and lamps (which weren't there just a moment ago-- he's sure of it!) on the walls of the cave click on. The sound of wings echoes through the cave-- millions of wing beats. Before he can think, crows stream in through the mouth of the cave and engulf him in their black feathers.

Beaks nip at his flesh, the weight of the crows pushing him to the ground. (How is this a fear? He's not afraid of crows, or birds, or even being eaten alive, really…)

Rick gasps for breath, blood starting to move form gashes all over his body. He thrashes around in the cloud of feathers. With every crow that he bats away, ten take it's place. He's drowning in a sea of birds, they're smothering him, slowly cutting off his air supply.

The interface said he had to overcome his fears, but it never said how. Is he supposed to kill all of the crows to prove to the mystical god of the elves that he can overcome his fear of being eaten alive by crows? Except he's not afraid of being eaten alive.

The crows keep pushing in, crawling all over him, batting their wings in his face, biting and cutting at his flesh. They make him feel completely helpless, like he can't do anything to save himself from the crows…

And then it hits him. He's terrified of being unable to do anything, so to be killed by a million crows while there's not a thing to do about it… That's the worst.

But how to overcome the fear of being unable? By killing all the crows? Impossible-- he still thrashing around without even making a dent in the massive numbers of black feathered birds surging in clouds around him. Maybe he can just give in? It's a thought, but not one he's particularly happy with.

There doesn't seem to be any other choice in the matter though. He's surely going to die thrashing around in the crows-- might as well go with dignity, anyway.

Rick forces himself to lay still, arms at his side, letting the crows bite and scratch at him, roll him around, without moving a muscle. He hardly even dares to breathe.

After some time-- he can't say how long, it might be minutes, might be days-- the crows start to lessen their attacks. And, soon after that, they're gone completely.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Daze]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

When Briar opened her eyes, the world seemed all wrong. It took a few seconds, but eventually—the girl realized that it was because she was lying down. And that her head hurt, like crazy. Slowly, cautiously—Briar blinked, sitting up halfway with her elbows on the ground.

It didn’t take long to spot Quill sitting over on a log, sharpening some sort of knife on the wood. It was coming off in clean sparks, and in surprise, Briar wondered how many other things about this arena was strange. (Logs as hard as steel?) After watching him work for a few minutes, Quill eventually noticed her—his long elfish ears pricking before he glanced over at her.

They simply stared at each other for a minute, Quill blinking slowly before glancing back down and continuing his work without looking at her saying, “You aren’t very heavy.”

Briar flushed. Her bones and muscles were light and small—designed to bend and spring like normal humans couldn’t. Still, she was a good hundred five, hundred fifteen pounds—it wasn’t like she was underweight and petite. “I’m very small,” she countered evasively. Not really. By human standards, she was pretty much average. But 5’’4 next to a seven foot tall elf kinda’ dwarfed your appearance—which is what Briar narrowed it down to.

Quill nodded, eyes flickering downward as he let the knife—letting the sun catch it and create glimmering shadows across the dark brown wood. After a while he pocketed his knife in a leather holster, and glanced back up at her—saying in a slightly accented English—with a fleeting grin, “You gave me this knife.”

The girl stared back in bewilderment. When did this happen?

“…Zeni betted that you wouldn’t last past the second day—but you just made it to the third,” Quill continued, looking pleased and clasping his hands together.

"So glad I can be of assistance." Brair wanted to make the comment scathing and sarcastic-- but it genuenly just came out as wary and tired. They could've at least mentioned that it was a three-day journey-- the girl had honestly thought they meant the terrain was difficult. Scowling, "So, where are we?"

Quill guestured around himself, shrugging. "We're at the spear-eel cove. It used to be a great spot for foraging and hunting-- but after the spear-eel showed up, it became too dangerous to do anything around here."

And my trial involves these things? Brair screamed inwardly, but keeping her face as blank as possible. "Oh. Where are the other--"

"--elves?" Quill finished for her, standing up. "They are at the viewing plank. They're suppost to watch from the beach while you do you trail. I was suppost to stay here until you woke up-- then bring you to the trail."

"Already?" The girl couldn't keep the dispair out of her voice. Her head was still pounding, her arms and legs felt like lead-- and her stomach clenched and growled on complete empty.

"Yes." Quill said, deadly serious.

***

Ad so they walked down to the beach's cove. Sheer cliff walls surrounded the cove on the east and west-- the ground gently sloping down between them on grassland to white sand. The water was dark. Like navy dark-- so unlike the water that had surrounded them in the boat, oh-so-long-ago. It wasn’t much of a problem, like every part of her except what seemed like common-sense, her eyes were slightly enhanced. They cut through the water and revealed murky shapes hat swarmed and slithered and attacked lesser prey.

Lovely.

As Quill explained on her walk to the beach—Briar's task was to kill one of these supposed ‘spear-eels’ and bring it back up to the shore without dying herself. That was pretty much all too it—except, ya’ know, these spear eels were deadly.

“…and once they’ve wrapped around their prey,” Quill continued, Briar slightly pale, “the eels release spikes from pouches along their skin. Usually only one or two hit the prey, depending on how much the prey is actually struggling—but inside the spikes are a venom that can paralyze the victim as well as incubate their eggs inside the prey’s skin—”

“Please stop,” Briar gasped, looking like she just might fall over. She was never one to freak merely by description—but it was like saying she was going to get in a pit with sharks. Which she might as well be doing. A pause from her, then, “And how many of these elves of yours have died trying to kill these things?”

“Twenty.”

“And how many tried?”

“Twenty-one.”

Good Lord. “Then, why is this a challenge for criminals on trial if they really have no chance whatsoever?”

“It was a trail meant for the ones who are most certainly guilty.”

“But I’m telling the truth!”

“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Quill said calmly, staring ahead at the water.

Then they reached the edge of the beach, the waves lapping at her feet. One of the female elves, a huntress by the name of Wentiq, gave a slight dip of her head and approached them. “It’s time for the trial to begin.”

Briar gave a heavy sigh and took one pleading look up at the sky—seeming to be begging the clouds for their help. Finally, in silence, Briar reached down, kicked off her boot and socks—and slid into the waist deep water.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin was pretty annoyed when she woke up. More annoyed at herself for not even noticing the elf come back up behind her, annoyed that Raelon was merely distracting her, annoyed that it had been totally unnecessary, and also annoyed that she wasn’t even wearing her own clothes anymore.

Not that those gamemaker spawned clothes were any better.

Lin stood up uncomfortably off the cot, the deer (or something like deer) skin dress making her feel very vulnerable and restricted. As well as the paint of some sort that Lin could feel dried on her face—but after a few seconds of careful debate, Lin decided not to wipe it off with the back of her hand, as it was obviously ceremonial and could very well offend the people who were holding the key to her life.
And so, after looking around the empty hut for a few moments, Lin stepped through the entrance (obscured by a heavy animal-skin curtain) and into the light.

Lin’s task was straightforward and simple—just like Briar’s. Though there very could be some strategic stuff in play, Lin’s task was to face a member of the tribe in a contest of accuracy and precision—an ancient tradition from the tribe’s beginning days in a right of passage…

But in short, Lin was going to face some super strong deadly elf and they’d both shoot arrows at targets and see who the better shot is.

Raelon looked up from his position on the log, smiling broadly as Lin stepped out on the forest floor, nodding in approval, “See? Now you could pass for one of us.”

Lin stiffened, shifting her weight onto the balls of her feet and replying with a head held high, “If I was seven feet tall and head pointy ears then yes, maybe I could pass for one of you.” Lin wasn’t one to dish out insults and come up with banter against the antagonists (Rick was the one who normally did that)—but given the situation, Lin was irritated enough to do so. Plus, she got out all her inner banter on the protagonists (especially since Rick was around).

Raelon didn’t seem to mind though, he seemed more amused than anything—not a trace of his original anger against her people. Maybe because he was a good two feet taller? Maybe because he knew that she was going to get the justice (if she so deserved)? Maybe because he knew something she didn’t.

“Now if you don’t mind,” Lin continued stiffly, hands (which had been folded) slowly loosening from behind her back. The only sound being Lin’s voice, and a trickling of a stream behind the log where Raelon was sitting… “I really have an appointment with my boat and I really would hate to miss it.”

And that’s when Lin figured out she wouldn’t have the advantage of her powers.

Lin’s arms dropped to her side the second she figured out that the water wasn’t responding to her command—clenching her teeth angrily as Raelon burst into laughter again. Geeze, was every single guy in these games going to be so—

“I got to hand it to you humans,” Raelon laughed, pressing a hand to his eye as if to wipe away an imaginary tear. A very human like gesture, “you are very amusing to watch.”

“I got to hand it to you elves,” Lin hissed back, crossing her arms and resuming her stiff composure, “you are very prone to mood-swings.”

“Well, I would’ve been disappointed if you hadn’t at least tried to escape,” Raelon nodded, more serious—but still keeping a faint smile on his face, at first seemingly t ignore her comment. “But after my initial anger of seeing you e’garth humans back on the island, I decided to believe your story. Especially after I’ve seen the children fighting and the cannons ringing.”

“Cannons?” Lin gaped. How long was she out? “How many?”

“Five,” Raelon said solemnly, regaining a serious leadership composure. “And five bodies to prove it. Of course,” a steely glint appeared in his eye, “that doesn’t mean you get out of your trails. You still deserve justice for the actions of your people—unless our goddess decides otherwise.”

“Fair enough,” Lin, too, was more serious on that note of five deaths of innocent (mostly) children. “When do I start?”

“Now.”

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS

and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

[/right]

… But it never comes. Tentatively, Kanna opens her eyes. The dream is gone. In it's place is a meadow-- definitely not something she's ever seen before, even in a dream. And the colors. It's so vibrant, so lush and green and… Okay, maybe that first dream isn't really part of the trial-- maybe it was just a normal nightmare, because this is just so un-Kanna-dream-ish.

She starts to walk forward, the tall grasses barely brushing her thighs as she does so. A man appears in front of her.

He's rather short-- only about an inch taller than Kanna herself-- and round in the middle. He's wearing an old-fashioned suit, grey tweed, complete with a vest and a pocket watch. He's balding and wheezes slightly as he shuffles forward. He mops his sweaty brow with a handkerchief, though it's only about sixty degrees.

After a few more seconds of walking, Kanna stops. She's about five feet from the man now. He straightens up and smiles (in a way that strikes the slightly paranoid girl as devilish), and then starts to speak.

"Welcome to the Trial of Dreams, Kanna Williams. I am the Dream Lord." he wheezes, "Sorry it took so long to get you here-- mild technical difficulties. But now that you are here, I can explain the trial.

"You will be faced with two scenarios, both with their pros, and both with a potentially deadly situation. Your job is to figure out which one is the dream and which one is real life."

Birds chirp overhead, and suddenly Kanna feels very, very sleepy. HEr knees buckle and she crumples to the ground.

"Tweet, tweet, time to sleep." says the Dream Lord.

RICK FREEDOM

i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run[/right]

Panting, Rick pushes to his feet. All traces of the bats are gone, even the cuts all over his body that just a moment ago oozed blood. He curls his shaking hands into fists so tight that his knuckles flare white. Before he can pull himself back together, he's launched into the second fear landscape.

It's darker than the first one, and he doesn't seem to be anywhere near the cave. His hands are chained behind him, and his chains lead to two people, one in front and the other behind him. The girl in front of him has two wings-- now grimy, but he could see how they would be snowy with a good cleaning-- sprouting from in between her shoulder blades. The boy in front of Wing Girl has hoofed feet and small horns sprouting from his curly hair. Uniformed people alongside the chained line of what could only be mutants carry whips, and there are guns strapped to each of their hips.

"Forward, MARCH!" calls one of the soldiers, and the entire chain lurches forward. After a few steps, Rick stumbles. The nearest soldier brings his whip down across Rick's back. He gasps as the air is knocked from his lungs. Wing Girl shoots a sympathetic look back over her shoulder at him, earning her a sharp flick of the whip to her calf. A few beads of blood pop up along the line it leaves.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

The water was cold. Icy cold. Like. Seriously. Fricken’. Cold.
Goosebumps immediately sprung up on Briar’s legs, and the girl let out a long huff—half expecting to see her breath in a foggy whisper despite the partially-cloudy sky. Whatever. Briar quickly waded deeper into the water, barefeet squishing into the sand, with a scowl on her face. If she was going to die she was going to die quick and without hypothermia. When she was about middle-chest high, Briar paused, not wanting to go where she couldn’t stand.

Shivering and arms suspended in a tense upright position on the water, Briar circled nervously with her feet lightly stepping around each other. Her head turned, and as if by delay, her feet came a few seconds later as Briar nervously peered around for the murky shapes she had seen earlier. Nothing. Either they were all asleep, or they had swum further and deeper out.

Wait a second. How was she supposed to fight and kill something if she didn’t even know what they looked like?

“Hey!” Briar barked, arms finally plopping down into the water and hugging herself to keep warm…er. Her head whipped back around towards the beach, and her curls bounced around her head in a pale wind that was forming—the tips stained a dark brown from the water. The elves on the beach looked at each other at the sound of her voice, and talked rapidly between themselves inaudibly as if this was all some fascinating seminar. “What do these things even look like, anyway? I can’t kill them if I don’t know what the look like!”
They talked rapidly for several more seconds between themselves, before the leader of the group (a dude-elf named Valkque) stood up with his arms folded behind his back and shouted something that Briar couldn’t make out.

The girl sighed, rolling her eyes, opening her mouth to shout back an annoyed reply, “I CAN’T HEA—”

And then something grabbed her foot and yanked her underwater.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin frowned, unimpressed, as she stared at the rack of bows. Obviously they hadn’t brought out the best stuff, as most of the bow strings on these homemade wooden bows looked ready to snap from their latches at a drop of a hat. They might be fancily decorated, but the craftsmen ship was poor. Self-consciously, feeling Raelon’s eyes bore into the back of her head, Lin slid down the dust path and over to the second stand. Better, Lin’s eyes brightened slightly. The wood was old, and appeared as if they might crack, but they were solid and made out of proper wood. These bows still had years left in them.

Bending down, Lin slid a plain pine-tree bow from its spot on the rack, along with its sheath—which she swung onto her back—and held it firmly in one hand, resisting the urge to raise the bow to her nose and inhale. It would smell like home, no doubt—there were still some areas of the bow that glistened cheerfully with sap.

“Nice choice,” Raelon complimented, hands by his side as he walked past her and further away from the camp. He gave her a little half glance over his shoulder, giving Lin a clue that she should probably follow. Taking the hint, Lin followed, not replying—but instead concentrating on keeping one foot in front of the other as she walked on the rocky path, still somewhat wobbly from the needle.
They walked for a while in silence, before reaching a large clearing where Lin could see many elves roaming through the thick pine branches—settling down on the ground by a clearing and conversing in both English and another language she couldn’t recognize. Inwardly, the girl growled, readjusting he grip on the bow. Great. An audience. Just what she needed before firing the most important shots of her life.

She and Raelon arrived in the clearing soon after, the crowd quieting an giving uneasy glances towards one another and whispering as they stared at her, not doubt looking so strange and small in their own clothing. Lin stared back with a high head, feeling slightly like Yoda might. Looking so out of place but ready to pack so much power. But then again, who was Yoda to Lin? Someone she’d never heard of in this world.

Raelon brought her up to the front of the crowd, giving a slight motion with his left hand. Quite soon after that another tall elf, even taller than Raelon himself, strutted up to the front with an amused look on his face. He spoke to Raelon in a low voice, before turning to face her with a slightly sorry look on his face—but drowned out by arrogance.

“You did not tell me that I was going to be facing a human, a child for that matter, Raelon,” The other elf said loudly, sneering at her. “Much less a female one.”

Sexist. Lin hissed in her head, but refusing to say anything turned to stare in supererogation out at the elven crowd.Plus, I’m ninetee—sixteen, you—bas— Lin cut off her silent raging response. He couldn’t hear her and she was just going to get herself psyched out.

Raelon sighed in amusement, and also turned to face crowd.
“The challenger, Lin of the Humans,” He roared out over the crowd (so they could all hear (not that they needed it with their large ears)), “will face Fyrew from the Earth Clan in the trail of dire—and compete for the favor of the goddess. If the challenger loses, Fyrew will win the honor of executing,” Lin flinched, “the challenger himself! If Fyrew loses, then Lin will earn the honor and favor of the goddess and will be treated as out guest and be set free after an honorary feast!”

What, so I can’t execute Fyrew, but he can execute me? Lin thought irritably, but keeping a stone face as she surveyed the crowd.

Fyrew laughed, scuffling at the dirt with the tip of his elven boot. He turned to face her, Lin catching him out of the corner of her eye, and said, “Are you ready to die, verengan Ha'DIbaH?”

Anger surged through Lin’s veins. How dare he laugh at her, think of her as easy prey! How dare they do any of this to her. To her, to Kanna, to Briar, to Rick! What did they do to deserve being treated like lower beings, and to be forced to participate in games when they were already struggling to stay alive? Was being born the thing that did it? Or maybe the fact that they were placed here against their will and forced to kill each other. The elf across form her sneered, even when he saw the look of unimaginable fury on her face—and Lin wanted to have the skies rain down hell from above and wipe that smirk of his face. Instead though, Lin hissed, and drew up to her full height—taking a step forward and facing him head on. “Heghlu'meH… QaQ… jajvam,” she hissed in a deadly low voice, the crowds of the elves growing dead silent, all laughter gone. She didn’t know where the words came from or how she knew that they would know—but Lin said it, and they did; they heard each word and knew how serious she was about it.

Raelon smirked, looking pleased that she had at least picked up something of their language—even if he had no idea how she had if she was unconscious—and was not taking the blows without protest. “Let the trail begin!” He shouted, turning serious again and facing the crowd who roared their approval.

Lin stared beadily up at Fyrew, not missing a beat, before breaking their long staring contest as the crowd roared and stared out at the crowed with a tall head. Like she said, today was a good day to die.

OCC: I’ll probably finish my trails within 2-3 more posts. You?
Also, I might kill either Lin or Briar in the trails, I haven’t decided. But don’t worry! I have a plan so that they won’t die forever… I think. Just giving you a heads up and inviting you to do the same. xD

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS

and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

[/right]

Kanna opens her eyes, only to find her nose less than an inch from the tip of a blade. Attached to the knife is a hand and, as she follows the arm on the end of the hand up, a boy. He’s taller than her (even if she weren’t on the ground), and is looking down at her with a strange mixture of concern and smirk on his face. A little voice in the back of her mind tells her that knife boy’s name is Richard.

Once Richard sees her eyes are open, his face opens into a smile. He tucks the knife back into its holster and extends a hand to her, which she takes.

“Geez, Kanna.” he says, earning a bit of a glare from the blonde, which only widens his grin. “What happened to you? One moment I’m kicking your butt in sparring, and the next you’re passed out on the floor!”

“I know perfectly well what happened.” she says with a scowl, even though she honestly didn’t have a clue what was going on until he told her. “And I don’t know w--“

Alarms blare overhead. Richard’s eyes flash with panic. He tugs her through the door, tossing her a small knife as he does so.

The pair bursts from the strangely round doors, almost crashing into a line of people, all dressed in the same black jeans and tee that Kanna and Richard are wearing. One of them (a twenty-ish girl) shoots them a glare. Kanna mumbles a hasty sorry before getting pulled off toward another of the lines.

As they take their place behind a girl with a swirly tattoo on her cheek, Kanna hears the cheerful chirping of birds. She barely has time to think ‘crap’ before collapsing.

RICK FREEDOM

i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run[/right]

Slaves. Or something equally bad. This… This can’t be happening. How do the elves know all this about him? Were they examining his brain while he was knocked out? Does he even want to know?

As he shuffles along in line, terrible, awful images fill his eyes, the sort of nightmares that I (your humble narrator) will not write to save you (and me) from having to hear about. A poster above a door says, in bold black letters, MCA: THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE. Well, that’s lovely. A realistic-ish fear, one with less metaphors and more MCA. Great. Well, he’s busted out of the MCA twice before, doing it once in a dream (which he’s recently decided this is, because, what else could it be?) can’t be much harder.

“Hup! Two, three, four. Hup! Two three four.” calls a soldier at the head of the line, a short muscle-bound man. Rick looks up. This definitely can’t be good-- chained up, forced to march in unison to some unknown location… Not to mention the men with guns and whips doing the forcing. He’d imagined having the MCA in charge would be bad, but never this bad.

The line shudders to a stop, each person bumping into the one in front of him or her. Peering around the line earns him another sharp flick from a whip, so he has no choice but to stand quietly and wait.

A door creaks open with a sound like a freezer door. Pale grey smoke sends feelers out over the line of mutant slaves, curling around their heads almost hungrily. One of the soldiers must have said something, because the he finds himself once again shuffling forward, feet unable to move more than a few inches at a time.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lin Heiwa]

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

Instantly, Briar inhaled sharply—acting all on instinct in a moment of sharp terror. Her legs lashed out, and she flailed with all her might—trying to convince herself that this was just like sharks-and-minnows at swim-team practice, and that nothing, especially this slippery, could hang onto your legs if you thrashed a certain way. But then she lost that superb concentration, wondering what-the-h swim-team practice was.

Instantly, she inhaled a large amount of salty-sea water up her mouth, retching and burst into a coughing fit, her arms thrashing but not her legs—and instantly whatever had a grip on her legs pulled her all the way under the water and out to where she could not hope her feet could touch.

Under the water, where all sound was muffled, Briar struggled with death. Her eyes did not sting from the water, as one might expect—and either it had something to do with her powers or she was more concentrated on bigger things than a slight stinging in her eye. She gazed around frantically, blond curls floating up towards the top of the choppy ocean waters, as she was pulled further down rapidly. Murky, shadowy, shapes swirled around the girl in the dark indigo—Briar feeling a sudden surge of true terror, a feeling she seldom felt. The… the shapes…

As Briar’s eyes adjusted to the sharp waters, her eyes focusing and tightening as her mutated genes compensated, she could just barely make out what was holding her leg. It looked like a huge eel, maybe ten feet long—with pale white skin. The edges of the skin, on the top and bottom of the seemingly fist thin eel, were frilled and wavered back and forth in the rapids, no doubt some sort of camouflage. The pale, tight skin of the eel was littered with black spots. Many black spots, and in a frozen wave of adrenaline—Briar thought back for half-a-second to what Quill had rambled on about, not unlike a fascinated scientist might.

What… what did he say about spikes?!

Too late now. The eel attached to her legs had slowly wound its way up her torso, while she was frozen in a blind panic, and Briar nearly let go of the little sanity she had left as it’s smooth scales curled around her neck. Her lungs were burning, her pounding heart and pulse eating up oxygen by the handful—and Briar erupted into a panicked frenzy of thrashing and struggling. No way. It could not end here, not now!

And Briar’s fingers shoved into her pant’s pockets, and curled around her knife.

”What do you see?”

The voice was faint from this high up in the mast, but Briar’s tuned ears managed to pick it up. Her curls whipped around her face, Briar shooting a half-amused glance down at the three people below her. All staring up at her like she had the answers to the world. Which, from this position, it certainly felt like that.

Leaning over the side of the mast to get a better view, Briar briefly thought about lying. Lying about the locations of the islands she could see so well. The less her opponents knew, the more likely she was to survive. Then again, what was the point of lying when they were all in the same boat? Literally?

Briar took a step backwards, mentally creating a map as best and as quickly as she could in her head. The people down below her were waiting, and she needed to report so they could get the h- away from wherever they were. No use staying in one spot and waiting for the careers to come and get you. However, just as the girl was about to vault over the side of the mast and whoop as she freefell—a glint of silver caught her eye.

No. Way. Briar eyed the knife with a disbelieving glint. She needed a weapon, something to defend herself with, and here it was. Right there. Right in front of her. And no one, if she played this carefully, would know that she had it. So slowly, casually, the girl leaned over the side of the mast, scooped the knife up and into her over-sized pockets, and clambered back down the ropes as if nothing had changed.

Briar flailed, her arms struggling to move under the tight bondage of the eel. If she could just squirm her arm up—she might be able to slash at the eel and kill it. Win the challenge. Survive. Live another day. But it was so hard; her lungs were starting to burn…

And then her world dissolved into a black nothingness of pain as the eel released it’s spike that cut through her skin like butter, Briar’s head throwing back—eyes wide and pupils retracting to flecks of black on blue.

”NO!”

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin tried not the gape. The first challenge had been a simple one. Hit a target about fifty or so feet away. Fyrew had gone first, obviously showing off as he notched, pulled, and released his arrow all within two seconds. Normally, a shot this far away would invoke some caution from the archer—but the elf was obviously pleased with the results as he gave a subtle smirk towards the nineteen who thought she was and looked like a sixteen year old girl.

His arrow was positioned just slightly inside the final ring. Not in the center, but quite nearly. It was an impressive feat. In such a short amount of time, and at such a distance…Tearing her eyes off the arrow, and forcing herself to remain calm, Lin shot a cool glance off in Raelon’s direction—asking noiselessly if it was her turn. He gave a subtle nod.

Lin pulled the bow up and notched the arrow. Concentrate, Lin let one eye close, leaning her head towards the springy wood of the bow as she pulled the string back. Her arms were quivering with the strain, but she had to keep it steady. Shaking hands would make her loose without a doubt. She couldn’t try to show off either. The elves were much stronger and had a superior accuracy—it looked like—and she needed to take her time and fire only when she knew she was right. It took at least thirty seconds, the elves shifting restlessly at her solemn, minor, adjustments—hardly moving more in one direction that a waver of the tip of the bone arrow. Suddenly, Lin inhaled sharply and—

WHAP.

It was close, just on the border—like Fyrew’s had been. Sighing in defeat, Lin let her shoulders sag and her tense arms droop down to her sides—one arm still draped around the bow. Obviously, with their apparently superior eyesight, the elves could tell who had gotten the closer shot due to their murmuring and rapid clicks (in which Lin assumed was polite applause). Expectantly, Lin turned to Raelon as he opened his mouth with a beaming face.

“First point to Lin of the Humans!”

[Rick Freedom]

KANNA WILLIAMS

and she said what became
of my promised fame
all I got was shame
and she said we're all to blame

[/right]

Kanna opens her eyes, thoughts about this new world flooding her consciousness. She’s curled up under a blanket, in a bed, safe and warm. The smell of maple syrup wafts in on a gentle breeze. The girl swings her legs out, shivering slightly as her bare feet touch the wood floor. She wraps her arms around her stomach and shuffles out of the bedroom, toward the alluring smell of waffles.

As she rounds the corner, a tranquil scene unfolds before her. A woman, facing away from Kanna, is pouring syrup over a steaming waffle. Before she can say anything, the woman wordlessly turns around and holds out the plate. Kanna has to bite the inside of her cheek hard to keep from screaming. Where eyes should be, there are only two large, black buttons. The woman’s mouth is sewn shut with jagged stitches of black thread.

Birds chirp, and Kanna falls…

She wakes back in Richard’s world, upside-down on the boy’s shoulder. The landscape of grey concrete and dully shining metal bounces up and down, giving her the correct impression that she’s been picked up and is now being carried quickly away from some sort of… Thing. What sort of thing? Who knows?

She twists herself off Richard’s shoulder and hits the ground running, matching him stride for stride. Tattoo Girl leads the way forward, not once looking back to see if they’re still following. She cradles a bulky machine gun in her arms. Kanna, glancing down for just a moment, sees a small pistol and two daggers strapped to her waist. Richard seems to have chosen a more traditional approach to weaponry-- a gleaming silver sword.

Why would they need weapons? Are they fighting something, or someone?

Tattoo Girl stops, panting. She leans forward and props herself up on her knees. They must have run a long way, though it’s hard to tell when everything in this place looks the same.

Without warning, a man in all black appears at the end of the hallway. Before the girl can react, the man raises a gun and aims it at her head. There’s a loud bang, and Kanna falls backwards, slammed against the wall by the force of the shot. The world goes black.

She wakes, gasping, on the cot back in the elf camp. Her back arches, lungs fighting to bring in air.

Goodbye. she thinks, not to anyone in particular, just sending the thought out to anyone who cares to listen.

RICK FREEDOM

i used to be old
but now i feel young
'cuz i was a boy
when i learned
how to run[/right]

The line files through the door, which swings shut behind them with a bang. Within seconds, he starts to shiver. The mutants around him start to drop, one by one. First the smaller ones-- the children and girls-- until he’s the only one left standing in a cloud of grey mist. His lungs rattle as he struggles to draw breath, and then he, like all the rest, falls…

He opens his eyes, back in the elf camp.

The boy leaps to his feet.

If any of the girls are dead, there will be hell to pay.

A small shack, not far from where he stands. There are two elf guards in front of the doors-- bingo.

In just a few seconds, Rick had pushed past the two elves and dropped to his knees beside Kanna. Her back is arched, her lungs straining to draw breath.

Goodbye. he hears, and then the girl falls limp back onto the cot. He just stares at her for a minute, waiting.

A cannon fires overhead. He scoops her small frame into his arms and, ignoring the elf woman's soft protests, carries her from the hut. Once he's out in the clearing, he lays her on the ground.

The girl's body starts to fade and within moments is gone completely. (OOC: Daze, this is like them being carried off by the helicopter things. This just seemed more fitting, because Mr Scientist Guy deals with the mind, not physical things, if I'm correct. Feel free to change it.)[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Daze]

:::::::::::::::::

“You cannot tell how strong one’s sprit is until you’ve seen them cry.”

::::::::::::::::[/center][/size]

Robin was walking.

This is how most of her mishaps started anyways. She would be merely walking along until she came upon something she simply could not keep her nose out of. Surprisingly, ever since she’d come to visit a friend of hers in the city—trouble seemed to find her, and not the other way around.

Luckily, under these circumstances—Robin was not alone. A shapeshifter was with her, a powerful one too, by the name of Jack. They were walking together, Jack his usual joking self, and she was laughing after some joke of one thing or another. It was lightly snowing outside, here in the city-woods—but it was one of the only places were mutants could freely roam without being frowned upon. The woods were huge, and it was highly unlikely to run into another person, mutant or not—the woods being over twenty-miles wide.

“What are you doing so far from South Carolina?” Jack asked, grinning as he pushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes. “Got sick of all the sunshine?”

“Of course,” Robin poked right back, kicking her snow-boot up and making the foot-of-snow beneath her poof up in small bursts of almost clouds. “I wanted a real winter for Christmas.”

“That I can understa—” Jack suddenly broke off, looking sharply to the side—eyes narrowing into tiny slits. His ears, however unnatural it might have seemed, were suddenly pricked—and Robin, noticing the sharp change in his, er, color (long story, more on that later) instantly knew something was wrong.

“What is it?” She hissed, looking around sharply. Her blue eyes narrowed, and instantly her vision became more focused and bright. Robin was a life-force manipulator, an empath. She did not see the way most people did—instead of the shadows and shape of the real world, she saw bright neon lines and shapes that resembled people and their emotion. Seeing Jack tense up like that, the girl instantly whipped her head around—expecting some of the malicious MCA she had heard about all the way in South Carolina.

She did not expect to see a body.

Bodies, in Robin’s eye, are almost impossible to spot. Without life inside something, the object becomes as transparent as the floor on which she stands. It’s very easy for her eye to slide right over it.However, it would have been nearly impossible to miss this one in particular—it was covered in the thing that was as good as life itself.

Blood.

“Robin—Robin, don’t!”

But she was already gone. Robin knew that it, a he, actually—was already dead, but that meant nothing to her. Death meant nothing to her, rather, as something that she could fix on a good day. Isn’t that convenient? Within seconds she was at the boy’s side. He appeared to be older than her, but it was hard to tell as she couldn’t actually ‘see’ him very well. She heard Jack scrambling up behind her, reaching out to pull her away before she hurt herself—and Robin flung one arm behind her, a small force field lashing out in a shock-wave, not much of her life-force used, but just enough to send him sprawling on his back flying up into the air.

“Dangit—Robin, that one hurt!” She heard him howl, and no doubt it did (flying through the air, even onto snow, was probably not a pleasant feeling).

Normally, the girl would’ve felt bad. But now she was concentrating on the corpse in front of her. He had died… less than a few hours ago—she could still do this! Not bothering to check for a pulse, or a heart-beat, Robin tore off her scarf and tight leather gloves, instantly feeling the cold seep up onto her hands. She ignored it however, and instead raised her arms high above her head, stretching them with her fingers locked.

Then they burst into blue flames.

Fswoop! Robin gently laid her hands across the boy’s chest, fingers splayed, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth as she felt a little life leave her. It was tiring, sure, and giving away too much would eventually kill her. But a lot had happened to the little girl who had first gone to Alexandria a little over a year ago. She was stronger, she knew more—and her powers had grown immensely.

Her hands pushed into the boys chest with a sudden quickness, but not hard. The pale blue flames around her hands flickered out for a moment as the first deposit was emptied into his body. Eyes closed, Robin could feel the boy’s heart fluttering—not starting—but fluttering. His nerves started to rewire, his soul flicker back into existence, her life-force becoming hot blood that started to circulate throughout his veins.

But he wasn’t breathing.

“C’mon,” Robin muttered through gritted teeth, eyes flickering open and staring with a desperate determination. “Breathe, breathe. I’m not pouring my life into you for nothing. You gotta’ breathe!” Nothing. As if to convince herself that her mind’s eye wasn’t playing tricks on her, Robin bent down over his body—his dying body—and hovered her ear right over his mouth. Nothing. No faint breath, no murmuring for help—nothing. Eyes panicked now, would this be the first time she could not fix someone? Robin raised her hands up, desperate now, before slamming them down on the boy’s chest—the throwback of the life-force blinding.

Somehow, it worked. The boy sat up, clutching his chest where the knife had been so carefully embedded, gasping and coughing—disoriented, sick, not quite sure who or how he was… Robin laughed in relief, sitting back on her knees, dizzy with the sudden loss of herself—reaching out and steadying the boy as he sat up, peering around blearily.

“Holy Shoot, Robin,” Jack said, eyes wide, half-stumbling over from his fall—reaching out and gently pushing the boy back onto the ground (no need to sit up yet). He gave her a despairing glance, shaking some of the snowflakes out of his brown hair, “Please don’t ever do that again!”

“I can’t just let someone die,” the girl responded, smiling broadly, half-delirious, half high from the sheer giddy joy of it working—she shook her head, her braid flopping off her shoulder and onto her back. “Seriously. Don’t ever try to stop me aga—”

Pause.

The only sound was the boy’s rapid coughing, his back slightly arching as he tried to clear his lungs and head—Robin’s head perked to the side, eyes closed. Watching her, Jack’s eyes quickly fell from surprise and delight, to horror and worry.

“Don’t—Don’t tell me—”

“There are more.” Horrified, Robin stood up—one arm on the gigantic oak by which the boy had been slayed under. “Six more dead—one dying, and sixteen more waiting to be killed.”

“What?”

Robin swallowed. Hard. Slowly, she turned, faced her friend with the blood drained out of his face—looking horrified that she was even considering doing what she was about to do. “You go to a school with mutants, Jack?” She asked, her voice quiet. “Well then run back to your school—and get all the freakin’ healers and telekinetic and elementals and shifters you got. Get all the mutants that even have a remote possibility of helping here—‘cause we got a war on our hands.”

Pause.

“And there are going to be causalities.”

BRIAR.
catch
me
if
you
can~
-smilie face-

”NO!”

“No what? I thought you wanted to go to this school!”

“I do—but I didn’t know it was so far away!”

“They can help you, Briar—some of your friends are even attending this year!”

“I don’t need help—I don’t need fixing! I’m not some freak!”

“Of course you aren’t, Briar—that’s not what I meant!”

“Well it certainly sounded like it!”

“You can come home during the Holidays—and your aunts and uncles live so close! In fact, we could probably come visit you for Christmas!”

“But what about my life, here? What about the life I’ve made? I’ve just finally gotten used to live here, I don’t want to have to start over!”

“You won’t have to start over—your friends and family will be there!”

“Not Hershey!”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous, Briar. We’ll bring Hershey up with us when we come visit you!”

“But I don’t—”

“Briar—this discussion is over. You are going to this school, so the people there can help you. I’ve heard nothing but praise about Markswell’s Academy!”

“But—”

“Discussion over. Pack your bags.”

Briar was frozen. She couldn’t move. It wasn’t because of the extreme pain, or the holes that littered her body that leaked blood—it wasn’t because of the paralyzing effect in the eel’s poison—it was because she was dying, and she knew it. She was wrapped head to neck in slimy eel skin, strangling here whilst she was already drowning. If that wasn’t enough, she had to be attacked by tiny spikes from the eel’s skin—of course.

She just had to die in the most dramatic, and painful way possible. (Well, there were definitely more painful ways than this—but really, try telling that to Briar right now). The girl could feel her hand curled around the wooden handle of the knife—only half drawn from her pocket. How ironic. Briar would die with the solution to her problem, her dilemma, in her arms. Lungs burning, but not really caring, the girl attempted a feeble last struggle. She didn’t even twitch—Briar simply had no energy, no strength, left in her body.

So, Briar, with her eyes blurring together and black spots consuming the edge of her vision, let her head fall limply back and blue eyes to close.

Goodbye.

Strangely enough, Briar realized, that her last thought to the world sounded so similar to Kanna’s voice.

A girl with blue eyes stared down at her. Right down at her, in concern, with a fragile tiredness. She didn’t look to be much older, or younger, than Briar herself. There was snow in her hair, Briar observed this dimly, and she was trying to say something. All Briar could hear was a faint ringing though, was she deaf in the afterlife? And why was she lying down? Well, whatever afterlife this was—Briar was exhausted in it. Spots again ate at her vision, and the girl felt her head roll to the side—the person above her mouthing something frantically and reaching out to touch her forehead.

And before she left this world, Briar felt two hands on her chest and a flooding of warmth.

And then she was back in Hell.

With an enormous surge of energy too!—oh, this was nice! This was a nice feeling! Briar’s eyes flew open, not blinking twice as salt-water attack them once more. Her hand, still wrapped around the wooden knife in death’s grip, felt oh-so-light now and with bubbles flying from her mouth, Briar gave one huge surge of strength in her arm. The knife cut through the eel’s smooth white skin like butter, giving a satisfactory screech of pain that was so easily heard under water. Then, there was blood everywhere! Some of it Briar’s own, but most of it the eels as it was severed in half—the girl’s blue eyes flashing in vengeance.

Her arms were instantly freed, her legs less so—but all it took was a few seconds of thrashing around to be freed of her burden completely. Then with three powerful breastroke strokes, Briar reached the surface of the water—breaking it with droplets flying like broken glass, and gasped for air like her life depended on it. The air was sharp and it burned her air-deprived lungs, not to mention that the girl could hardly breathe anyway (she was laughing/dying too hard), and with one arm wrapped around a severed half of the white eel and the other wrapped around the knife that saved her life (so far) Briar swam to shore.

Once she could stagger through the water, ankle deep, the elves swarmed upon her like vultures on prey—cheering and clapping her on the back in a language that either Briar was too tired to understand, or it was a new language entirely. Her knife slid back into her pocket, slipping in between her fingers as easily as her life had—and the eel’s head plopped down onto the dry sand (instantly picked up by several of the more exuberant elves in excitement).

Then, she kinda’ tripped over her own feet (though she claimed it to be a sand dune in her exhausted and rather fever worn brain) and collapsed into the sand, eyes closed and out before she even hit the sand. She was alive, barely, but alive. Sure, she was a bloody mess (literally) and covered in holes, and already she was sick out of her brains (ready for a moment of weakness?)—but alive.

And proud.

Lin Heiwa.
at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

IN PROGRESS.