♥5 [action -> audio]

[deadlyjuliet]

[Action]

[For those in the town square this fine day, they may find a red blur falling out of the sky and straight into the fountain with a loud scream and a crash. Grell is back in Luceti, looking like a drowned rat, and none too pleased to be here.]

WHY CAN'T YOU LEAVE ME SOMEWHERE RATIONAL?!

[Voice]

...Does anyone know where I can find a good hair product? That bloody fountain seems to have ruined my beautiful locks and since I can't blow that thing up, I may as well take care of this.

And for those who are wondering? Yes, the parlour is still going up. Even if kills me. Or one of you.

Comments

voice: // filtered 40%

[deadlyjuliet]

Ahn, and there is the failing of your educational system, my dear dear Clove.

I shall admit... It can be such a stirring thing to see. Laying down one's life for love of another. The tragedy of one lover dying, leaving the other to go on forever alone, bereft of their warmth! The decision to die together, even, bleeding intertwined, locked in the last embrace, silently conveying the passions of the heart! Words unsaid! Deeds undone! A future lost so another may be gained!

Ah, but love can be so much more complex than simply sacrificing yourself for another and calling it a day. Better that your affections run so deep that you simply cannot imagine a world where you must make the other suffer the loss of you. The guilt of having let you die so he may live, it can crush a man's soul, leaving him a bitter husk of remorse. Or worse, your sacrifice goes unnoticed. No mourning, no tears shed. You die and he goes on, uncaring, unmarred by your most pitiful death. No, it is far better to ensure that your love remains as passionate and poignant as the day you first kissed, and drive the bitter, lovelorn knife into their heart instead. Holding them tenderly as the Holy Light leaves their eyes, letting them know that it is better this way, that your heart shall have only ever belonged to them and theirs to you...

Which is the more noble sacrifice? To die and be in ignorance or to live and remember all this aching pain?

voice: // filtered 40%

[shenevermisses]

[Clove is silent.

As Grell speaks of love and loss and death, she's back in the Arena.

She hears the gong. The bloodbath is a blur. Boy Seven has a stave. He swings at her. She dives low, still running. Down to her knees. A vest. Knives. One out, thrown. Sinks into Boy Seven's chest. First cannon of the Games. A melee all around. Another boy -- distracted. Knife in his back. District Twelve. Knife. She blocks it, runs with the pack it's buried in. More blood, more death. The last non-Career -- Girl Ten -- dies at Cato's sword. Rest are scattered. The cornucopia is secured.

Others died, but the blood only came back when the tracker-jackers attacked. The hallucinogenics in their venom made her see blood everywhere, nearly choke on it.

Cato had been by her side through it all.

She would have killed Cato to win -- to live. BUt not... what she's talking about. Somehow, three distracted words escape.]

I died first.

voice: // filtered 40%

[deadlyjuliet]

Oh, how disappointing. I was hoping you would have survived a little longer.

Perhaps it's simply time to broaden our horizons then, hm? The parade of eligible bachelors here is never-ending after all.