[T] Frustrations (Ami)

[chiickadee]

Attempt 10
Ami stared at the expanse of tiles again. There were bodies everywhere, positively everywhere. She took a moment to center herself before stepping out onto the platform. Concentration this time. No people, not thoughts, just tiles. Damn tiles.

Status

Step: 1

HP: 40/40
Flags: 1
Instinctive moves: 0

 

[chiickadee]

She had no idea how the Death squad did this on a daily basis. A newfound respect for Otto, Wilson and all the other deathers.

Status

Step: 2

HP: 20/40
Flags: 0
Instinctive moves: 0

 

[chiickadee]

Even more respect when a single tile opened a corridor containing a metal runic dragon, who set off every tile and breathed fire.

So this was what they developed while they were supposed to be researching. No wonder nothing got done.

Status

Step: 3

HP: 0/40
Flags: 0
Instinctive moves: 0

 

[chiickadee]

Attempt 11
Once more, with feeling. Ami stepped onto the first tile, and seeing how nothing happened, she bent down to examine the others. A tripwire, just like last time.

She was beginning to get the hang of this course after so many tries. Still, the other two were entirely indiscreet, no markings to give them away. Just a blank surface.

Status

Step: 1

HP: 40/40
Flags: 1
Instinctive moves: 0

 

[chiickadee]

She bent down, knees on the ground and leveled her head with the ground. From here, she could see a slight indentation in one, but that of course gave her nothing. That could have easily just been perforations formed by too many people stepping on it. Maybe it was a rock-crushing tile?

She threw her flag down, but nothing happened. Rather, nothing she could see happened. She began clawing at the tile, trying to slip her nails under the cold stone. Ami wasn't sure why she was so adamant to get this tile up.

Maybe it was to prove she could do something right while the others failed? While the others died from insubordination and misdirection, she would continue her trianing. Everything was the same, nothing had changed. The useless hunters had been weeded out.

She pulled and pulled, thin cloth gloves snagging and ripping holes. "Come ON," Ami muttered, as if that would do something. Nothing ever responded to her whims, why should a simple tile have been any different?

Status

Step: 2

HP: 40/40
Flags: 1
Instinctive moves: 0

 

[chiickadee]

She should have volunteered to write Wilson's. Then he might have lived. Ami wasn't much in the physical department, but she was smart. She knew how to word things so Caelius would accept it. She could have saved a life, but she was too cowardly, too timid. Too guarded.

This wasn't her fault.

Her nails were beginning to chip in her efforts to remove the tile, tiny scratches on metal as she pinched and pulled. The tile was never coming off, but Ami certainly thought if she just pushed a little harder, if she just scratched at it longer, it would work. Something would give.

Stupid dumbasses. Kat for following that dumbass Ryan. Lex for saying all those things about turtling- this was why she turtled. People died on her, and it hurt a thousand times more than it should have.

Tennyson was a brilliant writer. Ami greatly admired the man, read his works and studied them intensely, repeating his words to thought. He had a way of focusing the careful reader's very passion into the occasion, fitting the hearts of all people into a few comprehensive lines.

But he was wrong. It was better to have never loved in the first place.

Status

Step: 3

HP: 20/40
Flags: 0
Instinctive moves: 0

 

[chiickadee]

Still she clawed at it, almost frantically. She just needed this tile up. Just this tile, and then she would go home. Then she would sleep. If she could just break this one tile, she could consider it a success.

Of course, nothing broke. The tiles were probably created by Life with some adhesive glue that could keep elephants together. Her nails were dangerously close to bleeding, and tears stung at the corner of her eyes.

All at once, she threw herself down in a frustration annoyance, hands on the tiles as a silent sob racked her body. She couldn't do anything right. She couldn't even get a tile up. "I don't want them to die," she sobbed out. Ami curled up on the tile and just gave up. "I don't want it- I don't! I want them to live, I want them to stay with me. Caelius you b*****d," she shouted up at the ceiling, talking to absolutely no one. "Why? Why do they have to die?" She shriveled into a ball and whispered, "I want my friends to live." It wasn't fair. Nothing was ever fair here, and Ami was just sick of it.

The death assistants grew bored of her pleas and sent some missiles at her. She didn't dare venture near the deathsweeper grid for some time after.

Status

Step: 4

HP: 20/40
Flags: 0
Instinctive moves: 0