floriography [ stories five ]

cards || three

[ tbh like,,, this au is just super powered hunger games but am i complaining?? nope

stay safe,
lew. ]

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Day Three.

Enclosed areas with Ezra never felt safe.

Hell, enclosed areas in general had Chase's fight-or-flight instincts screaming. So when she took to pacing the deck in the middle of the night, the last thing she expected was someone else to be there.

Ezra stared at the water, his current weapon of choice (a lethal broadsword, though he would probably switch to something else soon) securely in his hand. She was nearly soundless in her approach, but still, he turned to give her an unamused eye roll. "Didn't you hear the call?"

"Bro, I was sleeping like a coma patient until like five minutes ago. What call?" She asked, rubbing at her eyes.

"The Priestess. 'Terror from the abyss'. She's close, but it's early enough in the game that she won't be able to wreck us or anything. At most, she might rock the boat and splash us." He paused and scanned the water again, then said, "Use your ability."

Weight of Sins. Something she was still adjusting to. Ezra remained unaffected any time she tried to use it on him, meaning he felt no regret for anything he'd done. Sometimes she wondered if Ezra felt anything other than rage and indifference.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, picturing waves of energy rippling out from her and down into the water. Ezra's location on her mental image was just a dark spot, and although she could feel some things she could manipulate in Ronnie's mind, she chose not to. Messing with him just felt wrong.

Reaching out, she tried to find someone else within her area of power, but came up with nothing. When she shut off the ability and opened her eyes, the world spun wildly for a few moments. And, just her luck, she stumbled and fell on her ass.

Ezra snorted, waiting until she was on her feet again before telling her, "Wake Ronnie up. He'll be more helpful than you."

"Whatever you say," she mumbled, gripping the railing tightly. "I'm gonna... gonna have to go back to sleep."

Before she could even take another step, the calm surface of the water erupted, a bedraggled looking girl emerging. She gasped, paddling to stay afloat.

Confusion was written on her face, but it gave way to relief when Ezra wordlessly offered an uncovered hand to help her up. Chase walked closer, almost against her will, as the girl swam closer.

A smile grew on Ezra's cold face when he reached down and brushed his fingertips across the girl's outstretched hand. Streaks of inky black shot up her arm, radiating out from those briefly touched spots. By the time they appeared on her face, she was already gone, lake water flooding into unresponsive lungs.

Ezra held up his right hand, inspecting it in the moonlight as slowly, a trident icon formed on his skin.

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Day Three.

Logan was jolted awake by the calls screaming in his head.

The Priestess is dead!
An icon for Death!
Twenty one left!

He only recognized two of the voices. The first belonged to the girl, probably the Temperance card, who repeated, "Crush you with the Weight of Sins." Then, the sad tone of the last phrase reminded him of the "I watch you like a hawk," which, given clues and reading Harry's family's chronicle, was more than likely the Judgement card.

Slowly, the water level was dropping. Bailey had offered to catch some sort of creature for food, but seeing how he was nearly in tears, Logan went the smart route and told him 'not right now'.

Day Four after the flood was looking to be the same as the others, except for the simple fact: Another call rang in.

"Come, touch... but you'll pay a price."

That was the Empress card. All accounts, meaning Harry and Bailey's chronicles, said that she was a force to be wary of. But... that voice didn't register as feminine, it registered as dumbass redneck guy.

Bailey's head turned, and he pointed over towards what looked to be an old power plant. "There's someone crying over that way. They sound hurt."

"Want to check it out?" Logan asked, glancing between the other two. "We might be able to find more food, or at least see if it's another card."

"It's too risky." Harry shook his head. "It's the Empress. It'll be a trap."

"I think we should," Bailey murmured, covering his mouth with his hoodie sleeve. "Cuz I think I hear a dog over there and I wanna see if the poor baby's okay."

Logan sighed heavily. "You can enchant the Empress, if you think you need to. I agree with Bailey."

—

Turns out, the 'Empress' was a tired teen boy, watching his skin knit itself back together in the middle of a patch of lush grass and shards of metal.

"Hey, are you all right?" Logan asked, walking closer on the soggy ground, hands held up in a non-threatening manner.

"Not really, no. I've lost everyone I care about and I kinda just wanna die," he answered, shuddering as his accelerated healing and regeneration stopped for the moment. "So... unless you wanna be the next one to accidentally get killed from being around me, I'd suggest you leave."

"I'm probably going to die anyway, so..." Logan found a nearby log that didn't seem too waterlogged to sit down on.

After a few moments, the boy gasped. "I've been hearing your damn voice in my head for like two months!"

"Same, buddy. I'm Logan, by the way. The Sun, if you know the whole 'game' thing."

"Lewis. Apparently I'm the fuck-up version of the Empress." He patted the broken hull of the boat next to him. "What's the point in having this healing bullshit if you can't share it?"

Before Logan could respond, Bailey ran up to them, followed closely by a dog that looked too big to be any normal breed. His hand was bleeding, but the toothy grin on his face must've meant he wasn't badly hurt. "My mom would be so disappointed but I listened to Harry and—! The puppy bit me but now he listens to me and Harry said that's one of Strength's abilities and—"

"Deep breath, Bailey."

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[ okie dokie cutting it off here bc i'm lacking inspiration and idk where to take this au :)))))