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daughterofbearsandrivers · 9 months ago

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Horror | 1.0 `yautja`

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Vague imagery of honey dipped college memories suddenly tainted with screaming and the indescribable sensation of hearing literal bodies being torn into pieces. The cracking of ribs so each bone snapped from the sheer pressure, flesh squished together as blood vessels burst and spewed out geysers of blood mixed in with their bodily fluids. The stomach lining, organs, soft fleshy innards not covered by bone was consumed like hard liquor on Saturday club night.

Being hit by a car or shanked for belongings in parking lot would've been considered a calculated mercy or bittersweet memory compared to the last moments of the town's population in the past forty-eight hours.

The faint scent of gasoline tingled her nostrils, sending a very faint high to her brain like the chemicals in the pools does. Resisting the urge to cough to flex the muscles of her body in the cramped space of the trunk, the female waited several moments in silence for the slightest shifting of movement or prowling seekers looking to harvest on the strength inept species. Feeling around for the latch on the backseat, bright midday sun poured in through the opening, she inched it forward as she paused every second or so.

'Goddamn it's bright.'

She noticed the torn edges of her emerald painted nails once she fully leaned the seat forward, stringy grime matted locks absorbed the rising heat in the car. Glints of other vehicles windshields momentarily made blackish spots float in her vision, she opened a water bottle once she slid herself out of the car's trunk. The milk spoiled, eggs overheated and bread crusty.

'Good morning America, today's going to be sunny clear skies, maybe chance of rain showers, highs in the whatever seventies and lows- oh shitzerdoodle.'

Leaning on her side to stay within the cover of the car's seat position, she peeked around the edges of the leathery seat, seeing a black mass creep by the front of the vehicle. Ducking down though avoiding on moving her weight around too much, the female stayed in that awkwardly tense angle until she heard it bash through a boutique's doorway a street down.

Sorting through the groceries, she salvaged whatever wasn't affected by the mid summer day heat. Collecting granola bars, a flashlight, screwdriver and some bullets, she found scattered underneath the driver's seat, into a fanny pack. Pressing the button for the window, it slowly slid down. Immediately the intense heatwaves of summer hit her skin, soaking into her body as her clothes suddenly felt too thick to wear at the moment once she eased herself out. 'In this heat I bet ice cream and water would boil. Why couldn't it be a hazy day of clouds.'

Crouching down a little she steered clear from fragmented and little clusters of splintered glass, her footsteps being silent as she could manage. Keeping herself fully aware to pause every few minutes to take a thorough survey of the area, ensuing she didn't have any creatures tailing secretly. Her eyes and top of her head peeking just over the edges of windows, hoods and tailgates of vehicles left stationary in the main street. The crevices of her body's figure little by little condensed with sweat.

Padding herself down a little, she silently lamented as she felt the grains of sand, smears of oil further clogged her pores. All that hard work going down the drain the longer she stayed in the heat and in these ripped and frayed clothes. Without notice her heartbeat sped up, an automatic nearly cemented reaction to the soft skittering of talons, menacing hisses and breathy snarls passing through frosted razor sharp teeth. She crouched down, doing a quick three sixty view of side to side, top to bottom. Seeing all the possibilities where her position made her vulnerable and potential to life ending choices. The vehicles were spaced enough for running and could be jumped across by anything. Though not many of the vehicles had high suspensions to crawl under. And several of the vehicles blocked her in, preventing her from crawling over the hoods from how big or sloped the hood is. Calculating the estimated seconds it would take to jump up, crawl onto the vehicle, run then do the same thing. Another raspy hiss, like sizzling acid in a softer tone. She flinched, her body contracting to still every nerve then slowly releasing to edge forward in a slight crouch.

They were moving by her, a mere vehicle apart.

A few feet away from her fate of being harvested and once again encapsuled in goop to be the fertilizer of an alien colony. She thickly swallowed, forcing back images depicting her chest being tore open from the inside, the sickening sensation of crunched bones. One step, the next and then her body responded in kind. Her fingers kept thumbed over the smooth fabric of her fanny pack, a small assurance against an illusion of control.

'My nails are so damaged and cracked. I should take them off.... though those charms are pretty.'

Her hands turned a bit red from touching hot asphalt. The shattering of a window made her heart burst into a flurry of emotion though she made herself keep stationary. Slowing peeking back over a window, she noticed they had rummaged through a van. More glass sprinkled to the ground. A bony black mass that showed every ridge of it's unnatural existence skittered then body slammed into a vehicle as they fought over scraps of a child.

'Damnit, that's so disgusting- don't, don't think about it. Keep moving.'

Hurrying in the most silent way possible, she crawled underneath a truck and stayed there for a moment to reassess the situation. Her heartbeat had calmed to a considerable pace without her having to manually breath slower. What she didn't calculate is the sudden crashing sound on the truck's roof, making it cave in as the vehicle itself sunk down a little from the weight. Seeing it's shadow on the asphalt, she realized it's the other creature.

He's crouched, his head swiveling around for a quick moment as it let out a roar. A shinking noise of a blade. Those spindly creatures screeched and lunged for him or a very few ran away.

Curled up beneath the vehicle, she felt it's weight shift and sway as the muscular thing fought. A couple vehicles exploded. Heat razed the ground, acidic blood dripped and splattered onto metal and paved rock. Melting it cleanly beyond repair.

'I can't stay here.'

The truck's undercarriage smacked against her head only solidified that thought. She let out a yelp then instantly felt her heart speed up, the accompanying blush and her mind working nanoseconds ahead. She turned her head and saw one of the black creatures hissing loudly at her while the two species created carnage just on her other side. It tried to reach it's talons inside, she fumbled for her screwdriver in the fanny pack.

Yanking it out, she hit the asphalt several times but got her few strikes in against the black alien, making it rethink it's strategy. Knowing it'll likely try to crawl in, she kept wildly swinging her screwdriver around while she felt around in the fanny pack for the few bullets.

The humanoid creature in weird armor slammed a black alien into a car.

She flinched as more acidic blood dripped down from it's broken skeleton. Finally pulling out a handful of bullets, she tossed the shells across the street and right by the burning vehicles destroyed by a plasma cannon blasts.

A roar and an answering screech, more limbs being cut and slashed into individual pieces.

Letting out a sharp exhale, she swung and frantically swiped at the black creature now joined by two more. One of their talons cut into her lower calf, nearly dragging her out before the tossed bullets ignited. They went off and ricocheted, startling the black creatures a few feet and making the beige colored creature snap it's attention to find the source.

Without hesitation she made a break for it, keeping ducked down as she rolled out on the other side of the truck, scrambling to her feet and sprinting hard. She vaulted, slid over the hoods of vehicles to the other side of the street. Noticing some other black creatures crash out of boutiques and whatever woodwork they came from, chased after her.

She wasn't from here though she did know which streets and areas had been the tourist hotspots. Bigger buildings, more hiding spots. Running barefoot on the hot streets of the town, she didn't look back and she didn't stop or veer off to hide. Pumping herself faster than ever, the female saw the distant shining chain link fence of the fair grounds. Darting to her right, she went down a sandy hill of pointed stones, passing by a few tall cactus before coming right up to the fence.

Jumping it, she crawled up and felt the links snag on her jeans to sharply pinprick her skin. Throwing herself over it to land in a puff of dust, she heard them crash into the fence and scramble up it as she continued to run.

She passed through the carnival, her feet sinking a little into the fine sand and feeling the gravel drag on the soles of her heel. Her sights settled on a merry go round, heading over to the controls, she bashed her hands against everything until the ride turned on and the music blasted out of the speakers. Every noise being amplified in her mind.

Their screeches raked her eardrums and made her body turn cold despite the very dry summer heat.

Running in the opposite direction, she went into a house of mirrors. Her figure reflected on the narrow figure warping surfaces. Taking a breath of air, she slowed her footsteps and moved deeper into the entertainment house. Her cheeks red and bright from exertion and anxiety, her heart thundering in her ribcage, she closely listened for any sounds of the black creatures as her breathing seemed to drown out everything else, even her thoughts.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧┍━☽【❖】☾━┑✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧*ੈ✩‧₊˚

A shift of movement as the female rubbed her upper arms, one of her hands keeping a hold on the flashlight she had. She stared at her reflections, the afterthought of an idling mind being how she needed a shower and change of clothes. As she still kept finding small pieces of that secreted goop on her person she'd been cocooned in only hours ago.

Rubbing away the crusted blood on her wrist, the female let out a silent sigh. Slowing getting up, she paused every few moments with her head slightly tilted and her body making minimal movement to determine whether or not she's safe to breathe.

Measuring her footsteps she walked to the exit that's aesthetically covered by a curtain, listening for another moment she heard nothing. Though her heart pounded a bit harder. Holding onto her flashlight, she noticed no sun shined at the bottom of the curtains or made the fabric seem thinner from it's light.

It must've been hours but at this point, hiding and waiting out for hours seemed to become her only source of exercise and constant state of what her life has come to. Peeking out, she drew the curtain to the side with the end of her flashlight's handle. The orange bulbed lights of the solar controlled lights were on, the sky completely black and the desert terrain standing still just like her.

As if the world now knew the events of what happened in the last five days changed the course of mankind's present and future forever.

The female gently tested her weight on the wooden steps before descending down the short staircase. On a last second thought, she took the curtains with her. Wrapping it around her figure like a jacket and dress, she quietly walked through the fair grounds.

Popcorn bags, cotton candy cones and some push toys laid on the dirt. Some lights of rides flickered like a dying candle running on the last threads of it's wick. Her flashlight in one hand and currently unlit, she went to a small gift shop. There was no phone or landline and no internet for the working iPhone she found dropped on the floor. Picking out a shirt one size smaller than normal, couple water bottles and some paper towels despite no one being around, she still went behind the cashier counter to change.

Uncapping the lids of the water bottles, she dunked the paper towels in the water, wiping it over her skin as she took most of the dirt off. Scrubbing and washing away the grime, blood, sweat and essentially the memories that came with the reason there's blood in the first place.

Sliding on the new shirt, hoodie, wrapping the curtains around her shoulders like a strap for future purposes. She found a water basin for apple bobbing, she dunked and shook her hair free what she could. A relief of one problem being dealt with settled her thoughts. Still no shoes to wear.

That night she opened one granola bar for dinner and slept in the cubbyhole of where they kept the extra plushies and boxes of other prizes.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧┍━☽【❖】☾━┑✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧*ੈ✩‧₊˚

There was no hurry to leave or go anywhere though one designation remained present in her mind the next day when she woke in the afternoon. Her family- well her grandparents had a place up in Alaska. If her memory served her right, which both fortunately and unfortunately did, there'd be enough canned food and natural resources for her to survive there without any worry. They hadn't sold the property but kept it as the ideal family vacation house in the winter.

With that her mind she gathered up four water bottles, dozens of granola bars, candy and some pop tarts from the fair grounds remaining food supply. Finding another flashlight, some batteries and a phone charger in the abandoned vehicles nearby. Apparently no one had kept extra shoes in their once day to day work life. Sliding on her backpack and keeping her fanny pack, she walked the cactus and brush ridden terrain.

SIDENOTE | reblog, comments and lmk if you wanted to be tagged for the next part.

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what-gs-watching · 1 year ago

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"It's the things we love most that destroy us."

The other night, I did the last live session for my career bootcamp, and I decided I was gonna take yesterday to myself and just chill out.

Which led to me seeing an early movie. I honestly enjoy going to the movies by myself, sitting in a mostly empty theater and just getting lost in whatever is going on for a while. I’ve been meaning to go since this ‘hiatus’ started and there hadn’t really been anything enticing enough, but finally I gave in, and went to see

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

….Fuck, y’all. I came home and I felt a lot of WAYS about a LOT of things.

I read all of the original books while the movies were coming out. They were lent to me by one of my forever best friend slash favorite coworker - this dude was NOT the type of person to ever, ever read the Hunger Games but he did, and we got into the habit of swapping books and I ran through all of them. It was only fair, I’d made him read The Rum Diaries.

I love dystopian shit. I really do. I think most of us are fascinated with the idea of society breaking down. And also, how much worse it could actually be than it is now. That’s why I loved The Last of Us and Handmaid’s Tale and a million other things. It’s a curiosity. And a comfort, kind of. Like, things are fucked, but look how much more fucked they could be, aren’t you kind of glad, now?

So of course I was all in on a villain origin story for The Hunger Games. Who wouldn’t be?

I’m not really sure what I was expecting. I haven’t read the book yet, I’m so behind on actual reading (has fanfic taken over my life? Yes) but holy HELL. Like, they made this movie and they put it out and they were like “people are terrible, here’s a wonderful example of that. Hope you can stomach it.”

Wherein, a young Coriolanus Snow tries to mentor a tribute in the 10th annual Hunger Games (whose popularity is waning) to victory so he can get some desperately needed money for his family and shit spirals incredibly out of control.

Heartstrings are definitely pulled for Corio, I can’t deny it. He lives with his grandmother and his cousin and their family used to be powerful but his mother died in childbirth and his father was murdered during the rebellion and they show him and the cousin almost starving during that time and I get it. It’s unfortunate. But he gets into the academy and he sees his opportunity to finally get his family back to better footing, and that’s commendable.

He does some dubious shit in the beginning to help his standing - like making suggestions on how they can make the Games more popular again. Suggesting people need to get attached to the tributes, so they’ll be invested in their ultimate fates. That’s some psychological warfare. But also, it makes perfect sense. And it’s so gross.

Then he gets attached to his tribute, Lucy Gray, and he’s determined to help her live, and of course it’s because if his tribute wins then he’ll supposedly get some prize money, but it also seems like cares about her. Along the way, his friendship with Sejanus, another academy student who is originally from district 2, and who is rightfully absolutely disgusted with the games, grows. Eventually, Corio cheats to help Lucy, even though he’s been explicitly told that cheating will come with terrible consequences.

And so like, I’m with it so far. You gotta do some unsavory things to survive, we all do, it’s human nature. And that’s really the entire point of the movie but this motherfucker eventually takes it too far. But he also helps Sejanus when he goes into the arena to try and protest what the fuck is going on, and so it’s like, a balancing act.

Lucy Gray eventually wins the Hunger Games. I’m not gonna go into how fucked up all the death scenes during the Games are. Or how horrible the one girl is, leading a pack. There’s a lot of ruthlessness but also tenderness and it’s just as terrible as all of the other Games are, with a lot less finesse.

Anyway, after she wins, Snow is obviously punished and forced into being a peacekeeper in the districts, and he weasels his way to 12 where he knows Lucy is. And surprise! They fall in love. I am VERY curious to know how he gets away with running off with her all the time, that dude is supposed to be part of the military that shit should not be possible, but whatever.

Turns out, Sejanus follows Crio to 12 too, and that’s sweet. Sejanus really thinks they’ve got a bond. And maybe they do. But he’s dealing with a fucking psychopath and he doesn’t know it.

So sweet little Sejanus sees injustices in the district and he wants to help so he starts cavorting with rebels because of course he does, he’s the good guy in this fucking story, and Snow doesn’t approve but he’s also caught up in Lucy Gray and trying to figure out a way to get back to the capital, apparently.

And then it all comes to a head when he follows Sujanus to a secret rebel meeting and Snow ends up killing one of the dudes involved, and then the mayor’s daughter dies too, and tells Lucy and Sujanas no one can know about any of this obviously, and another guy takes the guns that were used and hides them.

The next day the Peacekeepers are obviously intent on finding the guns and hanging the killers. There’s some searching, and then they find one of the rebels involved. THEN we cut to two guys up in the noose, Corio standing guard like a good little keeper, and then they’re pulling SEJANUS up to the platform too and he’s crying for Snow to help him and he just watches and this poor kiddo is unceremoniously snapped at the neck.

Afterward, Snow makes a plan to run away with Lucy Gray and so they go. Like, he must love her if he’s going to try and escape Panem with her forever? Like, he must be abandoning his family and going for it? He’s abandoning his chance to be sent to 2 for officer training as well, his way back into property society. So he must mean it?

But when they stop at a cabin to get out of the rain, he discovers the guns they’d used in the murders. And he realizes he can get rid of them for good, and maybe he doesn’t have to escape after all. And Lucy can see the gears working in his mind and she knows he’s already lied to her because he let it slip that he’s killed 3 people and she was like ‘who was the 3rd?’ and I’m thinking the same thing too. And he lies about it.

So she lies too, says she’s going out to forage some food and when he goes after her, he finds the scarf he gave her on the ground and when he picks it up, a snake she’d planted there bites him. And he loses his shit. He’s carrying the gun he used to kill that rebel and he’s screaming and when he catches a glimpse of her, he shoots. He wants to kill her, she’s a loose end now, just like that.

Maybe she got away. We never really know. But honestly, in my mind, he got a good bite out of her and she eventually dies. Because it would make sense this asshole ruthlessly kills the one person he worked so hard to help survive, the one person who loved him, just out of self preservation.

Afterwards, he goes back to 12 and finds out he’s being sent back to the capital. And we need to give ALL the kudos to Viola Davis for her portrayal of Gaul, who was the head gamemaster, and was absolutely out of her everloving mind. She’d been pushing Snow behind the scenes throughout, likely because one fucked up person can recognize another fucked up person with potential.

So he meets with her, and we find out that he’d slipped information to her about Sejanus’s activities, and that’s why he was strung up. She wants him to attend university and become her protege. And he’s all about it. Sejanus’s family is going to pay his way because he was such a good friend and tried to do right by their kid (jesus christ y’all) and tada! Just like that, his family is restored to the status they expect and they have nice things now and everything is tickety-boo.

At the end, he meets with Highbottom, the academy’s dean, who has been absolutely not a fan of Snow throughout his exploits. He’d been determined to keep the kid down, and at first you’re like ‘yo what’s your deal?’ but we come to find out that Highbottom had inadvertently invented the Hunger Games as a thought experiment, sharing it with his best friend, Snow’s father. Who took it, and had it implemented. And Highbottom’s been trying to stop it ever since. No wonder he wanted to get rid of Snow.

Joke’s on him though, he’s hooked up morphling and after Snow leaves, he takes one of the viles that Snow had dumped on his desk, part of Sejanus’s personal effects, and immediately dies. Everyone that could of stopped him, everyone that could have been even vaguely a threat, gone.

And all of this, for what? Power and money? Security, I guess in some twisted way? Because he felt threatened? Did what happened to him turn him into this, or did what happened to him just show him he’s always been this way?

I wanted a villain origin story and I got it. And I kind of hated it. Because they had me in the first half. Because maybe we all have the propensity to become something so horrific if we’re thrust into just the exactly right set of circumstances. I mean, maybe we don’t, but we could, and I don’t think anyone ever really wants to find out.

Don’t make me look too close at humanity. That way lies madness.

The point is: I probably did not need to feel all of that right now. But it was good in a way that makes you angry. And sometimes, life’s just like that. Sometimes snow lands on top.

Fucking dystopian futures...

#what g's watching #hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #movies #dystopian future #coriolanus snow

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