Guy Crood (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
acroodawakening) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thearena2013-11-20 10:25 pm
acroodawakening) wrote in thearena2013-11-20 10:25 pm
Entry tags:
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright [closed to Katniss]
Who| Guy and Katniss
What| Meeting and stuff
Where| Oh man, IDEK, in the jungle somewhere I guess?
When| Week 4, post Peeta-death, before Guy runs into Azula
Warnings/Notes| None so far.
There were at least a few advantages to this place being so wet. Aside from allowing Guy to gather rainwater in various ways for drinking, it also meant there was plenty of mud. Mud meant keeping his skin cool and it also meant camouflage and there was always more to add on when he sweated it off.
Katniss might not have been able to spot him at first, lurking among the trees nearby. His body was covered in the red-brown stripes it had been stained with before he'd arrived here and streaked by even more brown ones made of mud. The striped effect distorted his outline and made him harder to see in the dappled light that filtered down through the leaves.
But he hadn't spotted her yet, which meant he didn't know to be extra quiet, which meant she might hear a nearby rustling in the underbrush.
What| Meeting and stuff
Where| Oh man, IDEK, in the jungle somewhere I guess?
When| Week 4, post Peeta-death, before Guy runs into Azula
Warnings/Notes| None so far.
There were at least a few advantages to this place being so wet. Aside from allowing Guy to gather rainwater in various ways for drinking, it also meant there was plenty of mud. Mud meant keeping his skin cool and it also meant camouflage and there was always more to add on when he sweated it off.
Katniss might not have been able to spot him at first, lurking among the trees nearby. His body was covered in the red-brown stripes it had been stained with before he'd arrived here and streaked by even more brown ones made of mud. The striped effect distorted his outline and made him harder to see in the dappled light that filtered down through the leaves.
But he hadn't spotted her yet, which meant he didn't know to be extra quiet, which meant she might hear a nearby rustling in the underbrush.
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Part of her was, on autopilot, making sure she didn't do anything too stupid. But most of her had shut down right now, just moving, getting away. Technically, away from the Initiate, but her body just need to move, to run.
From head to toe she was covered in her own camouflage, Peeta's red blood and Initiate indigo smeared across her pale face, soaked into her clothes. She was almost on top of him before she realized someone was there, jumping back and drawing her bow in one smooth movement, betrayed only by the shaking of her hands.
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That was a weapon. He wasn't sure what kind of weapon but it was pointy on the end and looked like - oh hey, that looked like the string part was meant to propel the pointy part - but he didn't have time to admire the craftsmanship. Fortunately, even as his brain was admiring it anyway, his legs were propelling him forward to dive through some grasses and hide behind a tree.
"Don't don't don't!"
Then he proceeded to climb the tree on the side facing away from Katniss, mostly one handed, since he wasn't exactly leaving his spear on the ground. He didn't get far, but at the very least he was now in a little juncture of branches that could help shield him.
"We don't have to do things like this!" he cried out, voice shaking. "If you try to kill me, I'm going to have to defend myself and trust me, you don't want that. I'm good at it. And we both have distance weapons - that's not going to work out well for either of us."
He peered around the trunk just a little bit, showing a sliver of a scared face. Not enough to really aim at, but enough for her to see some of his expression.
And enough him to look at her.
She was covered in blood and shaking. Younger than him.
Traumatized.
Katniss would see the slightest glimpse of lines deepening around his eye, on his forehead. It was very quick, as if it was unconscious rather than an act. There was compassion there. Sadness.
"I'm sorry," he said softly and then his voice sounded pained. "The funny thing is I don't even know what for."
Everything, maybe.
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And then his words sank in. He didn't want to fight her. And really, after that, she didn't want to fight him. The arrow dropped.
"Don't be." She said blankly. It wasn't his to be sorry for.
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They still weren't out of the woods yet, though.
"I think I'm still going to be," he said softly and the edge of his shoulder rolled visibly as he gave a little shrug. "But then I'm sorry for all of us anyway."
He swallowed thickly.
"What's your name? It'll be a lot easier for us to not have this turn into a disaster where we hurt each other if we know each other's names."
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"Katniss. You?"
There was still a tremor in her voice, in her whole body. If she stopped, and thought too long...so she didn't. She focused on him, in front of her.
"You're new, you weren't hear before the arena, were you?"
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He paused.
"Do you have family?" he asked. "I like to know these things. So I don't do anything stupid when I'm scared. So I don't forget people are...people."
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This person, she decided, was either the most manipulative tribute she'd ever meet, or way too good of a human being to be in the arena.
Like Peeta. She forced her mind away from that thought.
"I have a sister, and a mother." She said, focusing on them. They were out of the arena, her mother safe in 12, in the Victors village. And Prim, somewhere in the Capitol, probably watching this right now. It cleared her mind more, focused her, to think about that. "I'm sorry, they took you."
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"I have a little sister, too, and a little brother. And my mom, dad, and Gran. And my mate. Her name is Eep."
He took in a deep breath.
"I really want to get back to them - but I also think you probably want to get back to your family and I'm honestly not in a killing mood today. It's been...a bad day. So I'm going to do something a little crazy and stupid here, because we both have ranged weapons, and - and really the only way to get out of this is to try to mutually walk away. And that's a little hard when you think the other person might come up and throw something at your back so - so that means one of us has to back down first. But I think - I think that has a better chance of both of us surviving than it does of one of us trying to run or attack, right?"
He took in a deep breath.
"So, I'm going to throw my spear down. Not at you, just on the forest floor. And then I'm gonna hang off a branch and jump down a little bit away from it. And that's where the stupid part comes in because all I have besides that is my knife and that's not going to do me much good when you have that spear-thrower...thing. So. I'm just going to leave this up to you, okay? You could have been trying to hit me this whole time, but you haven't been, so I'm thinking maybe you don't really want any extra blood on your hands today, either. And that's - right now, after this kind of day - that's all I can really hope for."
He peeked just a bit more around the tree trunk. "Does that sound fair? Because...well, really, that's more than fair to you. And after that, maybe we can talk a little more, and once you know I'm not going to go after you when your back is turned, we can both walk away."
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"I'll put my arrow back in it's quiver." She said, as a form of agreement. She didn't want to let go of her weapon, though she wasn't worried about him. At this point, if he was going to turn on her, well...she'd find out about Peeta sooner, rather than later. Or, never, it the spear went in wrong.
"Count of three?" She called out, giving a little, humorless smile. It was like the worse game of hide and seek. Actually, that could sum up most of the arena.
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And just as promised, he tossed out his spear so it landed on the forest floor.
The rest was up to her.
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And she wasn't really doing well on her own right.
"Truce?"
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He did have a knife but it stayed in his belt and he did exactly what he'd promised, climbed out on a branch, dangling down, and landing a little distance in front of her. The spear was nearby in the grass, where he could lunge for it if things got desperate, but not immediately close where he could hurt her with it suddenly. He made no move for it or for his knife.
He simply knelt there, peacefully.
"Hi Katniss," he said gently, as if she was, well, a human being. "It's nice to meet you even if I wish it wasn't here. Are you hurt?"
That was a lot of blood.
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"Hi."
She looked down, checking for an injury automatically, before remembering what he was seeing. And feeling everything she had been working at ignoring surge up in a wave again, over taking her. The tremble in her hands starts, and she clenched them into fist, gouging crescents into her palms to control herself.
"It's not my blood." She finally bit out.
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Either it was a friends or she had to kill someone to save herself and neither deserved anything other than compassion.
"I'm sorry then." He saw her clench her hands into fists. "Take a few deep breaths, okay? I know it hurts. This whole place -"
He broke off.
"There's always a little bit of peace in here when you need it," he pointed to his chest. "So I'm going to give you a moment of having someone nearby that won't try to hurt you so you have a breather. So you can find it."
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"Thank you." She finally managed to whisper when she was sure her voice wouldn't give it away.
Because there wasn't anything more she needed right now. Not, at least, that anyone in the arena could supply. Leaning against the tree, she let herself feel it's strength, let herself take in deep breaths.
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Quiet could be a gift sometimes. For now, the only sounds they could hear in the jungle around them were the gentle rustle of the breeze through the leaves.
While she took a moment to calm herself, he knelt there and spent a moment focusing on his own breathing, reveling in the fact it was still happening, and taking comfort in the fact that this place smelled green and wet like so many places back home.
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But first she needed to let Guy know how much that had meant.
"Did you get anything at the cornucopia?"
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"I woke up here," he said. "In the middle of it all. I got some gifts from the silver eggs that come down from the sky but that's about it."
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"Here. For...helping me."
Someone this good shouldn't even be here.
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One of those tears rolled down his cheek as he looked up at her.
"Thank you," he said quietly, taking her gifts.
He hadn't been expecting anything back.
"If I see you again - I'm not -" He took a deep breath. "I don't like to kill. I only kill if people try to kill me - do you understand? So let's try not to find each other again, okay? Maybe after. If we're both still here. Then I'd like to get to know you. We all deserve to be - to be people, to be known. Maybe you can tell me more about that sister and mother of yours then."
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"See you in the Capitol, then. It's a promise."
For herself, more than him. He would be there, for sure. She would get out, find Peeta, safe.
"I've got a few people you can meet, then."
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