Carnage in the Caves

[etcircenses]

Who| Participants in the bloodbath
What| Murder and mayhem ensue after the jabberjays chase people into the caves.
Where| Deep within the caves. This area of the caves cannot be broken into or escaped from until 24 hours have passed.
When| Over a twenty-four hour period beginning now.
Warnings/Notes| Violence, death, gore, etc. You have been assigned a target to kill, but you may run into other characters in the caves as well.

The jabber jays begin their screaming, driving you deep into the caves in an attempt to escape the cries of your loved ones being tortured, beaten, or killed. When the maddening sounds finally cease, you will find yourself trapped in a series of corridors and caves, sealed tight with no chance for escape. Luckily there are plenty of weapons and supplies at hand (machetes, axes, hunting knifes, swords, maces, spears, clubs, hammers, scythes, bows & arrows, food, water, clean clothes), but any delusions of good fortune are soon squashed when an announcer assigns each person a target and gleefully informs you that you must kill your target within 24 hours or else you will run out of oxygen and die.

Over the next 24 hours, you will be tasked with killing this person in any manner you can. You may also happen upon other unfortunate souls trapped in the caves, but be wary of befriending them down here. They're on a mission too, and there's no rules against collateral damage.  

Good luck, and don't forget to put on a show.

Comments

[silberfuchs]

"Please, he-" he needs it is what Albert wants to say but it comes out as a painful gurgle, nothing dignified about it. He's already pushed himself to the limit and there are no more words he can force out, nothing else he can manage to say other than to choke.

He wants Sam to go, wants him to try and survive. After all, every moment he stays in one place is a moment closer to someone finding him here, helpless in grief and taking the opportunity to murder him.

But he also doesn't want to die alone, and that all too Human part of Albert wins out. He clutches Sam's hand as hard as he can, which isn't as hard as he should be capable of, and forces himself to pick his head up and look at Sam intently, trying to say with his eyes what he can't with his voice; even breathing is watery and painful, putting small flecks of blood on his lips.

Thank you, my friend, My brother.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

Sam leans forward automatically, curling one hand around the back of Albert's head to help support him leaning up. One hand in Albert's and the other holding him up and he has to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment, as he tries not to see blonde or red hair tangled in his fingers instead of silver, as he tries not to let the different shapes of his grief blur together.

'Please don't leave me.'

But he can't ask him that. It's beyond either of their controls, now. All Sam can do is force himself to open his eyes, to meet Albert's gaze and remind him that he's not alone.

"I will, Albert, I will. I'd do it just for him, because he's worth it, but I might as well make the promise to you."

'I'll do better by him than I did by you and Kurloz and Nat and Riley.' Riley shouldn't be in there, he shouldn't. He should be long settled, but hearing his voice stirred everything up.

No. He can't think about that right now.

"I got you. I got both of you, man, it's okay. It's okay."

[silberfuchs]

Sam is suddenly supporting him and though it hurts to keep his head level even with that support, Albert leans into it, his forehead coming to press against Sam's as his eyes drift closed again. This is easier somehow, sitting here in the embrace of someone he's equally embraced as family. Easier and harder all at once and isn't it strange how large his family's gotten now?

At first it had been him, lost his traditional family in the way that everyone loses their parents eventually. Then Hilda, but he'd lost her too and himself in the process and thought he'd never find that support again, was resigned to never find it and remain alone to lament his existence.

But then the nine of them gathered around him, putting back the pieces he'd lost and abandoned all hope of finding, but in new places and new ways, healing the hurt and the biggest right at the center had been in the hands of an always reckless but beautifully insightful redhead with a smile like the sun. He'd lost them too, at intervals, but that one always seemed to come back.

And now there's this. There's Terezi, his adopted daughter whom he can't entirely explain his attachment to for cultural barriers but he dotes and adores her and revels in her cleverness and wants the world to be better for her. There's Venus with the same signs of damage in her that he carries, matching scars on people worlds and times apart that still somehow understand each other and nurture healing through shared pain. There's Kurloz, so haunted but so full of hope too even when he can't see it and he lets Albert guide him there, lets him share his own hope and instead of diminishing it grows in being shared. And Bruce with his mirrored weaknesses, Bucky with his mirrored experiences, Clara with her soldiering through and Steve with his inherent goodness that makes others want to strive for the same.

And Sam. Sam who he'd grown so close to in such a short amount of time. Sam who even if he doesn't understand will accept unconditionally, will see a mess of damage and emotional baggage as an entire person and not blame them for feeling how they feel because that, too, is part of the Human condition, the Mortal condition for all the Trolls go through it too. Sam who seems to be able to hold up the collective psyches of each of them and still be able to ask for help himself when he needs it, a feat in and of itself and one Albert's never been able to manage. But he would, he thinks. He would ask Sam for help, should have done before this when he had the chance. He's always been there with open arms, Albert's just always been too bullheaded to be able to show his damage in that way.

But he could, now. Sam is his brother and leads him straight and maybe after the Arena, when the source of brightness in his life is safely tucked away in 13 and out of the repeated hell and cycle of endless death that is the Neverending Quell... maybe when Jet is safe, Albert can speak freely and lay down the burdens he's carried for so long. Sam has already proved willing and able to lend a hand.

Family.

So strange how it grows even in the worst of circumstances. Or maybe because of them. That's when you find out, really. When you find out who will stand by you in the darkness as well as the light, and as the light grows dimmer in Albert's eyes he feels he's standing there with Sam as the darkness closes in. It's a strange feeling, almost out of body, but it's better than drowning in his own lungs.

"Th...ank...y..," is all he manages to croak, but the words are there regardless. The sentiment is there. Trust, fidelity, fraternity. Brothers not just in arms but in practice.

Albert's breath rattles liquid in his chest, coming out like static with pops and crackles as his weight grows heavier against Sam's support, but it grows quieter slowly, soon barely audible over the moving air of the caves themselves.

It's not long before the sound stops altogether.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

The fainter that breathing gets, the closer Sam pulls him. There’s no point in being gentle now, in taking care to make sure that he doesn’t make Albert’s injury worse - there isn’t a worse than this. By the time the only breathing that Sam can hear is his own, he’s got Albert completely in his arms, cradled against his chest with his face buried against Albert’s shoulder. He holds back his sobs, just a little longer, just a little longer because if he starts now, he might miss it when Albert takes his next breath, he can’t-

He can’t do this. Oh god he can’t, not with Steve dying in his arms last arena and Natasha a few hours ago and Kurloz a few minutes and now Albert, and there wasn’t a damn thing that Sam could do for any of them, he can’t. How the hell could he have ever thought he was strong enough to go through something like this all over again and come out even remotely in one piece?

Except Albert had believed in him. He'd said Sam could do it, that he could come back from something like this just like he had the last time. And somehow Sam had agreed, even though he knew how hard it was before. Even though right now it's hard to find that, it's hard think that Albert was right to believe in him.

But he has to do it. He has to. He can't let Albert down more than he already has. So he lets go, slowly lowering Albert's body to the ground. He stares at him for a long moment, then unzips his jacket and unhooks his falcon pin from where it's pinned to the inside.

Sam leans in, carefully pinning it to Albert's shoulder, and murmurs, "Give that back to me when we wake up in the Capitol."

Then he stands, pretty much on autopilot, and walks on into the tunnels of the cave.