Splatterworks

[peregrineink*]

(Madeline Harris continued from Lightweights )

The warehouse led back into the armoury, and Maddie wondered if that girl was still there. The applause still pounded in her head, pounding pounding, until she realized that it was just her head hurting from that strange and mysterious smack to the head that she had received a lifetime ago. It felt like a lifetime...but how long had it actually been? Hours maybe. She gingerly touched the back of her head, to feel a little matted superficial blood there. Whatever had hit her several years ago had left a little cut, nothing too serious, but her fingertips came away red.

No, vermillion. More beautiful than any pigment she had ever worked with. Well, that wasn't true, she was working with a lot of this pigment lately, and she liked to think that with two masterpieces done in such a short period of time, that she was currently at her most prolific.

The room was empty, much to her mixture of surprise and disappointment. She knelt next to the door, keeping her eyes trained to the ground. She would definitely most likely hear anyone coming, and she rubbed the raw pigment into the cement floor. The dark gummy red smeared as much as it could, the gray of the cement staining a dark brown. She couldn't draw with it though, not with the limited amount that she had found.

Maddie would have to find more.

She raised her trowel to her lips and lightly kissed the gunmetal. She had never been kissed before, and probably wouldn't for a long time, but once the gallery was complete, there would be plenty of time for such things as kissing, although such a thing dimmed in comparison to the rapture she had felt upon making Siobhan. Damon had terrified her, Siobhan had invigorated her.

She held her gun closely, and waited...maybe soon, maybe very soon, she would be able to start her next creation.

[Carrion Queen]

((Kendra Jones continued from Get Ready To Fly ))

Kendra walked aimlessly around the compound. She was careful, she didn't walk out into open areas or just barge in anywhere. It had been a while since she'd seen someone. The announcements blared, letting her know there were more dead kids and more killers. She still had no idea what she was doing. No goal. No direction. Not really even any hope. Her eyes started getting misty, but she never really broke out into a full sob. Kendra had it in her to hold it together, at least for the time being.

She wanted to find friends, fine someone who she knew and liked. Kendra always had one hand in her pocket on her little spherical friend. Quietly, she walked into the armoury.

Need to sit. Need to rest.

[peregrineink*]

Maddie watched as the newcomer entered the armoury. She couldn't place this new character, she was one of the several random faces she saw day to day, but that couldn't stop her from being made into beautiful art. She had to wait though, such things could not be rushed, she was lucky with Siobahn, but not everyone will be that easy. The blaring announcements had informed her that she was not the only one with a paintbrush, she had to be careful, or else her gallery would be incomplete.

With wide gray eyes she watched the girl, saying nothing, curled up into her little ball. It would happen soon enough, she knew.

[Carrion Queen]

Kendra secured the strap of her bag to her shoulder and looked around the amoury. There didn't seem to be very much. Her legs were starting to hurt a little from all the running and walking. She hadn't stopped to rest for hardly a moment since she nailed John in the groin and took off at the start of the game. Kendra swung her bag up to rest on a crate. She shook her hair out and sighed.

With one hand on the crate she extended her left leg all the way out until it was parallel with the floor. She swung it back so that it was behind her, still perfectly level with the floor. Her hair hung down loosely as she closed her eyes a moment. She let out the breath she was holding and went en pointe, up on the tip toe of her sneaker.

Calm. Calm down.

Balancing perfectly and precariously on the point of her one foot and concentrating, she relaxed slightly.

[peregrineink*]

Maddie watched the girl contort her body and breathe. She could picture this girl like some sort of ballerina, dancing on tip toed sneakers. Slowly, painfully, Maddie smiled at this. When she was a little girl, her parents had given her a music box. The ballerina would dance to a light, tinkling melody. The box was beautiful antique wood, and ballerina itself was perfectly painted and graceful looking.

She took the box apart when she was 11, in order to contribute to her newest sculpture. Maddie had never thought of this before, but thinking about it now, she could remember the look on her mother's face when she unveiled her newest creation. It was only until later that Maddie was told that the music box had belonged to her grandmother. She had tried to put it back together, but if there was one thing that she knew about herself, she could take things apart just fine, it was putting things back together that was the problem.


Maddie watched the muscles in the girl's body untighten slightly as she balanced. She knew that if you cut the achilles tendon just right, the calf muscle would curl up and the victim would be crippled. Unfortunately, Maddie did not have anything to cut with. But she had a gun.

She looked down at it, set in her lap, her hand loosely holding onto it, and wondered if it would be rude to shoot before introducing herself. What if she missed?

[Carrion Queen]

In a flash Kendra swung back up, standing perfectly straight as if she had always been that way. She pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ears and looked curiously up at the camera in the room. She'd almost forgotten about the cameras.

Her sisters were watching her. Her mother and father were watching her. Her father had always been very busy; he hadn't had the time to make it to her recitals and her dances. Her mother had tried but when she had fallen into ill health, it had been difficult for her to make them. It was usually just her sister Taryn to come and see her dance, she was the one who helped her practice and fixed her costumes and did her make up. It wasn't that her parents didn't want to come see her, in fact her father and mother had remarked on how much they loved her dancing they few times they'd seen it. Kendra liked her hip hop and jazz classes but ballet seemed to always be the favorite among parents.

She looked up at the roaming lens and waved shortly, without a smile. There was a fairly good chance she would die here, no matter how much she didn't want to or how much she was willing to try to survive. Kendra looked around. Left, right, back, front. There didn't seem to be anyone there. Surely someone murderous who was hiding would have taken their shot when she was balanced on one foot.

It was sentimental and stupid, she hated sentimental things, but Kendra decided it would be nice for her mother and father to finally see her dance. If not for the first time in a long time then for perhaps the last time.

"Mom. Dad....."

She took the starting position and took a deep breath, hands near the bottom of her ribs.

And began to dance.

Choreography and Music reference

It cleared her mind. She was focused.

"Giselle? What the fuck, seriously? I hate that story. It's so stupid."
"Why do you say that?"
"Common. It totally is. And like, the ending? With the ladies or whatever? Who ever thought you could DANCE someone to death anyway?"
"You never know."

It was clumsy going with the sneakers instead of proper shoes, but she managed gracefully. She considered skipping the on pointe penchee, Kendra wasn't a fan of that hopping, but kept it in and finished with a sweep leg. Once again she stood back up as if nothing had happened.

[peregrineink*]

Tears filled Maddie's eyes as she watched the girl dance. She wanted to stand up and walk over her and go "you are beautiful" maybe then the girl could put her arms around her and hold her, like a friend, and call Maddie beautiful too.

Maddie had always wanted to feel beautiful.

Slowly, hugging the wall, Maddie got to her feet. Her hand never left the trigger of the gun, and Maddie took comfort in the fact that she could not see any sort of range weapon on the girl's person, so if she kept the girl at a distance, she would be safe. Maybe they could talk, maybe Maddie could talk to her about the art she was making, and the girl would be impressed. She really wanted this girl, who she could not remember and maybe had never met, to be impressed by her. If she couldn't impress this girl who went to her school, how could she ever impress a nation?

Still gripping the gun in her left hand, Maddie decided to be polite. She clapped. Of course, it wasn't really a good clap, keeping a grip on the gun she was force to clapp her hand to the bottom part, more like her wrist. But she clapped nonetheless.

"That was beautiful," she said quietly. "You are a really good dancer."

[Carrion Queen]

"And for that matter, talking about then ending, who ever heard of saving someone's life with dancing, hu?"
"Stop being such a fuss pot and get out there. Good luck hun."

Kendra was technically an adequate Giselle, but her interpretation always seemed to be lacking. Her teacher seemed to notice how she wasn't really sympathetic to the character. Giselle was supposed to be light, sweet, innocent and young. While Kendra was certainly young, all that came through when she danced as Giselle was apathy. But now that she was scared, she was alone, she was tired and worn down, it was perhaps the best she had ever danced as Giselle.

It took a few seconds for her breathing to even out. While she stood there, she heard a noise like strange clapping behind her. Her eyes went wide and she stuck her hand in her pocket. She spun to face whoever had just come out.

It was a girl. A girl with a gun

"Ohshit!"

Kendra lost her composure for a second and stumbled backwards, but caught herself.

"Uhhhhh thanks," she replied.

Okay. She has a gun. On the upside, I'm not full of holes and she could have totally made me into swiss cheese when I was twirling around all willy nilly like an idiot. Control your snark and your temper this time. You already sent two people packing by being a bitch.

"Y-you, you're the art girl."

[peregrineink*]

"Yes...yes I am!" Maddie was surprised that this girl even knew who she was. "But...you're kind of an art girl too, you know." She kicked the ground with a dirty sneaker for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. This girl was art herself, like the ballerina in her old music box.

"Sweetie...what is this?" Maddie's mother looked at the sculpture that now stood in the middle of Maddie's room. It was a terrifying clockwork thing made of broken clock parts and bits of the antique music box. At the top of this thing the ballerina danced. Unfortunately the reconstruction of said music box into the sculpture had warped the tune the box played into something awkwardly dissonant that could barely be heard above the whirl of the cogs.

Maddie, a skinny little girl of 11 with her strawberry blonde hair in tangled disarray down her back, looked at her mother with widely excited and expectant eyes. She looked like some sort of elf child, drowning in overalls and oversized shirts. She was so proud.

Her mother burst into tears.

This was confusing, did her mother hate the art? She didn't understand, she had always been impressed by Maddie's abilities, this was new, this scared her. She, in return, began to cry. Later on when her father visited her crying on her bed, he gently rubbed her back.

"I thought I had made it better," she sobbed into her pillow.

"Honey," he said quietly. "Some things don't need to be improved. They're beautiful all on their own."

"My name is Maddie," she said, extending her free hand. "It's nice to meet a fellow artist."

[Carrion Queen]

Kendra looked sideways at the hand being offered. There didn't seem to be any trick in it. No trap lying in wait for her in that handshake.

She looked up at the girl and then back down to her hand. Kendra took a step forward and put her hand forward to meet Maddie's. Fingers curved around the blonde's palm, settling into the curves her hand and squeezing every so slightly.

"I sort of am," she said in response. "I work really hard. I always have. But it seems like all that work is gonna be a waste."

Kednra looked at the girl. They looked absolutely nothing a like. Kendra was girly and well put together when she went out. This girl was a bit messy. But she'd seen her art around the school; there was no denying she was good. Kendra didn't really remember her much though aside from her art. She supposed she just didn't socialize much.

"I'm Kendra."

Keep it even. Nice and calm. No need to startle this girl. Try to be less of a bitch. If ever there was an incentive to be less bitchy, it's def the addition of a gun.

[peregrineink*]

"Not necessarily," Maddie said thoughtfully. "Is it a waste what you just did for the cameras?" She turned her gray eyes up to Kendra, making eye contact with a student for the first time since she had ever really begun soon. "You danced right now, I saw the art, and so did everyone at home."

This was also the first time that Maddie really thought about the cameras, the strange things that were watching her as she made her art. She hoped her parents were watching, she hoped that she was making them proud.

It also didn't hurt if some art school scouts were watching.

"I haven't stopped making art since I've come here," she said off handedly. "I actually think that it's my best work yet."

It was nice to just talk like this. She never really had the opportunity before.

[Carrion Queen]

"I...."

She was slightly embarrassed. She hadn't known anyone was watching. Well of course someone was watching. She'd done it right there in front of the camera. But she didn't think anyone was around to directly observe her.

"I'm a professional. I haven't really thought about it. It's just something I do."

Kendra hadn't let go of the girl's hand. She took a step forward and the tension in their arms went a bit slack. It was like they were holding hands now.

Kendra was afraid. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to be alone. This girl, though, she didn't sound afraid. She didn't look scared. It was like she was talking to Kendra outside the mall or something, chatting.

"You have?" she asked. Her guard had dropped and she sounded like the young girl she really was, not even 16 yet. None of the spit fire she had in her voice since she had woken up was present now. She asked with a sense of wonder, and perhaps just a little bit of fear. She was intrigued.

"Can I see?"

((Kendra Jones continued in Plenty of Death to Go Around ))

[peregrineink*]

Maddie felt great comfort in holding hands with Kendra, even if it was in the middle of a blood bath. There was a chill in her heart, one that she couldn't properly explain, but she shook it off. Holding Kendra's hand was nice, she couldn't remember the last time a peer had touched her on purpose.

A small shiver shook her small frame, and she jerked her head to the door. Duncan? For a minute she felt almost as though he were standing there, but that would be ridiculous, just wishful thinking. He was still out there and she still needed to find him. To apologize. It would be ok, no on would kill Duncan! She'd find him and show him her gallery. He'd appreciate it. Maybe he would hug her.

She thought about it and smiled, and a desperate chord of hope struck through her chest. Yes. it would be fine.

Kendra wanted to see the gallery, but it was way too unfinished to show someone now. Maddie bit her lip, rubbing her hands together.

"It's very unfinished," Maddie said earnestly. "But you will be the first to see my next creation!"

Now she would just need to find a subject....

Maddie looked up at Kendra, a manic gleam in her eyes.

"I make art everywhere I go!"

Three shots sounded in the air, staccato. For some reason to Maddie it sounded like a dinner bell. Something in her heart told her to follow the sound...but...

"Let me show you," she said, making a motion to follow to her before slipping out the door.


(Maddie Harris continued in Plenty Death To Go Around...)