WHO: Daisy Johnson, Maria Hill WHEN: Day 12. WHERE: Their cave WHAT: Makeovers. TRIGGERS: Hunger Games stuff, of course.
Maria honestly had no idea how long they'd been in the arena. Without actually seeing the sky or the ability to sleep for any extended period of time given how alert she had become to any echoing noise, the closest way she had of telling was the yellowing of various bruises. How long had it taken to kill two (one-and-a-half?) people, or for most of them to die in here? For somewhere between 9 that she was pretty sure she knew and twenty four of them to die in here? It felt like months, it probably wasn't. By the itching of the healing scratches on her face sticky with humidity and dirt, she knew it hadn't been.
Maria huffed and reached up to brush hair that refused to be caged in a failing braid out of her face as if it might restore the sight that hadn't come back despite days of denial to help her view the dark but entirely too clear water lapping against the rock. She wasn't annoyed. She wasn't exactly angry. And sullen was hardly a soldierly word. But frustration ran just under her skin and made her want to scream. A dumb plan in an echoing cave, especially when they were fishing.
But an impulse struck her that was maybe less self destructive. Maria held over the spear that had a fishing line tied to its shaft in a sort of makeshift rod. "Trade me for your knife?"
Daisy had no insight on the passage of time. It was disorienting in a way. She felt like such a long time had passed, but sometimes she wondered if it just felt long because she didn’t know how long it had been.
She didn’t really know what she was feeling outside of generalized blankness that had settled over her since when she’d killed the last girl...Killing Natasha at least could be counted as merciful. What was the last one? She could have just knocked her out or...well...anything. She could have done anything that wasn’t killing her, but she’d reacted without thinking about it. The girl had been trying to kill Maria, so she’d used the spear to get her to stop. It wouldn’t hold up if anyone asked. She didn’t want to think about what the girl’s friends or...whoever she had were thinking.
Blinking, Daisy looked at the spear that was being held out to her. It took her a moment for her mind to catch up and she pulled the knife out, offering it to Maria and taking the spear. She stuck it back in the water, trying to focus on fishing. “What are you going to do with the knife?” She was a little late in asking before just handing it over.
"Thanks" it was a weird place for civility. But it was the best way to communicate I am not going to stab you without addressing the elephant -- or the strangely talking snake-- in the room. Maria took the knife and studied its blade for a long and full moment. It was sharp. It was sharp enough to kill the Black Widow. So it would be sharp enough to answer Maria's purpose.
She reached back and grabbed the shaggy braid that she had woken up in the tube with and wordlessly cut upwards at the base of her neck. It cut smoothly causing the hair which she could feel fall against the bandage wrapped around her head and almost immediately she felt a wash of relief, like a weight had been lifted. Even if it was only short lived.
Well, she wasn’t dead, so that was something.
Daisy watched as Maria cut her hair, momentarily surprised. She wasn’t really sure why she was so surprised, but it seemed surprising at the moment. Of all the things that were going on in the arena, something as normal as cutting their hair seemed to be the abnormal thing in the equation. Still…
“It looks nice,” she said after a moment, giving Maria a smile.
A moment of consideration passed before she said, “Can I have the knife now?” Because long hair was difficult to maintain. It wasn’t like she’d really miss it...and it wasn’t like they really had a hairbrush. Just their fingers. She’d give her back the spear and be careful not to hold it out in her blind spot.
"Hold on." Maria didn't hand it immediately over, taking a moment to cut the longer hair towards the front. She ran her right hand over her hair. It had to look a mess, haphazardly as it had been done, but she liked how it felt. Besides it was so dark in here, and they were probably going to die, that functionality became far more important.
Or maybe she was just cracking. Maria held out the utility knife and sat back in the sand once more. "I've been wanting to do that for ages."
Daisy was patient as she waited to get her knife back. It made sense since there was still some long hair left. “Well, I guess that makes sense. I’m surprised you didn’t when you got the glow worm in your hair.” She laughed at that as she took back the knife.
She rebraided her hair as well as she could (which really wasn’t all that well all things considered). Then she did like Maria and cut up until it cut all the way through. She put her hair to the side and then cut the longer parts in the front. She was pretty sure it didn’t look good but it did feel better.
“Think we could use this for anything? Fishing net?”
Despite herself Maria wrinkled her nose, but there wasn't a laugh that followed. It probably would have sounded as empty as Daisy's if she had forced it.
"God, remember when that was the grossest thing about this arena?" She didn't want to think of what was. Between the underwear she'd been wearing for a week straight, to how far away the trek to the possibly still zombie-infested toilet was, to how bizarrely comfortable she had gotten with any number of people's blood on her in so short a time. None of those even really registered in a survival focussed and shell-shocked mind compared to the undercooked arthropods and snakes they had been subsisting on.
Maria looked down to the twin braids, neither terribly long, that coiled like a dormant snake on the dark sand. There wasn't a lot, but maybe a net could be fashioned from that. It didn't need to be big, right? Maybe if they had had Enchantress here they'd have enough, but that was its own bag of worms. "Maybe? We could maybe burn it..." It would smell like hell, but nothing could smell as bad as a fire, for once, might feel good.
Daisy was ready for an actual shower. “It would be nice if that was the grossest thing still.” Because at least then they’d have more than this. She wondered if the people from the world with the Hunger Games were used to these things or not. Not the killing, just the rest of it.
Her side was still killing her. She’d spent more time than she wanted to admit trying to make sure there wasn’t glass in it. Even just a little bit. She didn’t want to think about what this would mean for her later. One hand absently moved to touch her side.
Daisy nodded at her suggestion. “We at least have the fishing kit. So if you want a fire, we can do that.”
Maria gave half a smile, and stretched forward, reaching for her spear again. Of course, a hot meal depended on them actually catching something and then boiling it leftover aluminum cans. And fishing, even after however long, was still not one of Maria's strongest skills. In fact about the only action that could make time in the arena even longer. But when the only way out was death or facing her friends after multiple murders, maybe long wasn't so bad.
"Let's catch some fish. Maybe we'll get those rainbow shrimp again"