Juliet Cardiel

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

"Nothing’s ever been definite, and being in here makes the possibility for goodbyes even more fleeting." I said with an undertone of harshness to it. Juliet needed to realize this. No connections meant no pain. Love meant loss and loss meant pain. "So no. I don’t think we will."

I didn’t turn to face her, I simply continued walking, glancing down at my map every so often. “Do you want to opt for camping out for the night and hunting in the morning or starting as soon as we can?”

I kept my eyes on the ground. I knew she was right, but it wasn't as easy as she put it out to be. I couldn't accept the fact that we didn't even get a goodbye. It's such a small word that would cost nothing to say.

"We should probably camp for the night. I'm starting to get tired, and we'll need all the energy we can get tomorrow."

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

I shuffled through Lura’s pack and ended up giving half the loaf of bread, vegemite, and one water bottle to Juliet. I kept the Timtams to myself along with the other bottle of water, the other half of the bread, the war club, the boomerang, and the map of the arena. With each of us knowing the direction of where we were headed and with plenty of food and weapons to protect ourselves, we were off to a good start.

"Off we go," I said simply, continuing our walk east in an attempt to find someone or somewhere to stay for the night.

Closing the pack, I put it back on my shoulder. It was heavier now, but not that much. It was actually kind of nice, at least I felt like I was helping with something.

I sighed as we kept walking. "Do you think we'll be able to say goodbye to someone?" We didn't get to say goodbye to Lura. I didn't get to say goodbye to Vincenzo. The odds weren't exactly in our favor.

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

"As it will," I said simply. I could tell she wasn’t 100 percent convinced that we would need to resort to murder this soon, but I also wasn’t about to convince her otherwise. The quicker this arena was over the better in my eyes. I slung both packs over my shoulders and knew that these two packs would be a bit cumbersome if I needed to carry the both of them.

"Care to split up the extra supplies?" Even I couldn’t say Lura’s name, relate this pack of stuff back to her lifeless body that we left as though we didn’t care.

I wondered how many days this would last. Hopefully less than a week. I could imagine all of us, sitting in the classroom, waiting for the time to pass, beg for it to run quicker. Some payed close attention to what the teacher preached, others talked in small groups, some wrote and draw in their notebooks and others played with pens, pencils, are whatever worked to pass the time. If only we knew...

"Yes, of course," I said, holding up my bag in front of me for her to put some stuff in.

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

I raised an eyebrow at Juliet’s proposal. I had never thought that she of all people would suggest anything that could harm someone else. I knew she could get a bit rebellious when her parents weren’t around, but murderous was never in her description. At least that I knew about.

It seemed like days ago when I had first suggested speeding up the arena process, but after everything that had happened today I suppose we were wasting daylight. “Juliet this arena may have just changed you for the better,” I said with a slight smirk. This could get exciting.

I immediately crossed my arms in front of my chest. It wasn't like I wanted to do it or like I would enjoy watching my classmates in a pool of blood, but it had to be done. And, if we didn't do it, the Gamemakers would do it for us.

"I just want this to end," I repeated, aloud this time. But was Serah right? Was I really changed? Maybe all the death we saw in less than twenty four hours had that effect and perhaps that was all they really wanted.

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

Thankfully Juliet didn’t take too long and we were up and running in no time. I wasn’t about to wait around for too long to become bait for some other tribute or pair of tributes to pick us off. It wouldn’t be that easy for them. I’d make sure of it.

"I could go all day," I said simply, although it was a complete and utter lie. "Although I’m afraid the whole being nice had never really been my forte." There were few things I couldn’t do, and kindness to other people was definitely one of them.

"So, plan of action?" I normally didn’t defer to other people to put their say into what happened next, but I supposed whatever Juliet had to say couldn’t hurt.

"I believe it isn't." Bless her. I guess one couldn't be good at everything. "I can do the kindness part don't worry. You take care of the electrocuting." Each one with their own strong point, that's how a pair should always work.

I tapped my chin lightly, thinking about something to say. "Didn't you want to go and shed some blood?" Right now, I was ready for everything. I just wanted this all to end and whoever was supposed to win to go home.

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

I stopped alongside Juliet, but refused to sit down. I stayed standing as she searched through her bag, making sure that if anyone did come around we wouldn’t be caught off guard. Juliet did have quite a lot in her bag, and I took the time to quickly search through Lura’s bag. I found a blunt object of sorts that greatly interested me, but kept a hold of my tazer. It was small and more compact, while still being useful.

"I’m sure I’m quite alright," I said with a hint of humor, shrugging the shoulder that was still carrying Lura’s bag. "We’re in this together so I suppose what’s mine is yours." Wow this did not feel natural. I did my best to pretend like a part of me was kind to make sure Juliet didn’t fall apart on me. Those who say lying never comes in handy were surely mistaken.

"If you say so," I said, throwing everything back inside the bag and putting it back on my shoulders and standing up. We had enough weapons to defend ourselves with if someone came running towards us and we had enough food and water to survive for awhile.

I smiled. Serah acted like I didn't know her. "Stop trying to be nice. You're going to run out of energy." I appreciated her for trying, but it was never going to work. I very much preferred the real Serah. Maybe we could pretend everything was still the same.

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

We both continued walking for a bit longer, not seeing any sign of tribute activity. At least nothing we could make out. I pulled out Lura’s map from her pack which I had grabbed just before Juliet and I made our way from the building. Glancing at the map, I noticed that we had a bit more to go before we could reach a building, and guessing by the amount of smoke in the sky, one of those buildings must be out of order.

"We can take a break here," I suggested, noticing that Juliet had yet to explore her own bag. We were in a wide open area, completely vulnerable to any other tribute, but the building nearest us seemed to be the one causing all the smoke. We had few options.

I looked around. People could catch us here, but then again, they could catch us anywhere really. A small break couldn't hurt, right? "Maybe just for a couple of minutes." Again, I studied our surroundings, before sitting down and crossing my legs.

Unzipping my bag, I started laying everything on the ground. Two packs of dried fruit, two cans of stew, two bottles of water, a Swiss army knife and a weapon I didn't recognize. Holding it in my hand, I inspected the strange object. I had no idea how it was called, but I was sure it could do some damage. And we had food and water. Not everything was bad.

"Do you want to take something?" She did give me the bow and I wouldn't use all of this anyways.

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

I could see Juliet struggling not to break down and I admired her for that in that moment. I had expected to have to either leave her with Lura as her tears attracted other tributes, or drag her along next to me as she sobbed. Either way, I was happy she was strong enough to hold it in for the time being.

"We could head farther east, see what’s over there." I wanted to get as far away from that building as possible, as far away from the event that still had my bones shaking. We would both need to be strong for ourselves and for Lura.

I nodded. "Let's do that." She obviously wanted to stay away from that place, and so did I. Now, I just wished for it to be all over. I didn't want to be swallowed by the darkness of the night, dream about everything that went wrong. Peace. That's all I could hope for.

But, even if getting inside some building was safer, I very much preferred to face the cold than to be stuck inside four walls. "I still need to check what's in my bag anyways."

Stars Exploding in the Night || Serah + Juliet

Juliet and I had little time to pull ourselves together. Eventually we left Lura, after taking her pack, to be picked up by a hovercraft and sent back home. I had shed three tears, all wiped away and covered back up as Juliet and I continued walking eastward. I needed to get as far away from where we left Lura, and take my mind off of what had just happened.

"You alright?" I asked, half-caring about Juliet’s response. A part of me had shut off but I knew that Juliet wasn’t like me in the aspect. She could utterly fall apart on me and I wasn’t about to let that happen.

I simply remember falling to my knees, wanting to run and help her. Serah's warning that it wasn't safe was the only thing forbidding me to enter that building and pull her out. And in that moment, it hit me that there was no way I was going to save them. There was no way I was going to save myself.

As we walked away, I left my hand over my mouth. I couldn't cry. It would be a disgrace, I had to be strong. With the other hand, I grasped the bow. They had no idea what I was willing to do now.

"Yeah," I lied. I knew Serah would just block her emotions like she always did and I had to learn to do the same. "Where should we go?"

#dem jams #stars

Location In Arena: Outside the Admin Building

Allies: Serah

Injuries: None

Pack/Weapons/Items: 2 packs dried fruit, 2 cans stew, 2 bottles of water, swiss army knife, kama, map of arena, bow and quiver with 10 arrows

Notebale Developments: Saw Lura being blown up to pieces. Probably just going to hide and cry.

#apogupdate

Fugitives || Pop 3

lura-crivelli

I looked at Jules. She was struggling. The struggle will only get worse. This is not the time for it.

I started leading them down the path to the closest building.

"You and your bloodlust. It seems to have heightened since you can kill someone without being arrested."

"Knock yourself out," I said simply, handing Juliet the bow and arrow. I wouldn’t be lethal with it and if she was then by all means she could have it. I was fine with my taser.

Following suit behind the two girls, I let out a small laugh at both their comments. “I’d just like to speed up the hell that this arena already is and by all means if that means offing a few people then that’s what I’ll do.” I shrugged and continued walking.

"Thanks." I ran my finger down the bow and put the quiver on my shoulder. Somehow, I felt safer. I could do something to protect myself and my friends and I still had to see what was in my bag.

"Some people are already there though. I think you're not the only one with that opinion." I wondered if we could sit there and do nothing. All of us. But they would probably blow us up. Even if they did, nothing would be the same now.

#pop3 #apogarena1

Fugitives || Pop 3

As Lura and Juliet began talking about where to go, I took the few seconds to search through my bag. I was given a bow and arrow and immediately put it back when I saw the taser. Although I would have preferred something more along the lines of a dagger or two, or three, even five would be fine, this was still familiar.

Turning to Lura and Juliet, I shrugged my shoulders and looked around. “If you want to hide out for the night you’ll owe me blood tomorrow.” I wasn’t about to sit around all day.