thearena | Mini Arena 2

It's a miracle Dave made it this far. It was all on a wing and a prayer and his brother saving his skinny ass good and proper. There was a brief glimmer of hope that they'd make it through together, but in the second Dave had lagged behind Bro he'd caught up to find some asshole kicking him overboard.

He'd fought him, obviously. His hits had been frantic and full of fear and rage that he rarely gave into. He doesn't know how far he would have taken it if he hadn't heard a yell in the distance. He'd told the motherfucker to wait until next time and hightailed it up that little bit further to search for the source of the sound. His parkour is sloppy and clumsy, he's honestly more rattled and dizzy than he'd like to admit. He's relieved when he sees yellow approaching and he pulls himself up the last stretch to sprint over. The bruises slowly forming match the purple of his suit and it's obvious he's been in a fight.

Without his shades, his eyes are wide, red and a stark contrast to his hair. It's hard to look as reserved and calm without them, but it's not important. Fuck being quiet, he's calling out before he's quite made it over.

"THE ROOM SERVICE HERE IS AWFUL." He yells loud so his voice carries over the wind, he's climbing closer carefully with a discreetly hopeful sensation welling in his chest.

Edited 2014-07-24 16:43 (UTC)

When the ship decides to give up the ghost of staying afloat Clem can't help the frightened yell that escapes her as the deck begins to tilt further, throwing her off balance and into the side of a bench. Which really fricking hurts.

She pushes herself off and begins to wind her way to the front of the boat, realising that's the part which is going to be the last thing above water. As she moves she's trying not to think of all the people she can't see on the deck, the one's who might not have ever made it up at all. But it's hard to see in the dark, that's the thought Clementine tries to comfort herself with.

Clementine starts with relieved delight when she hears a familiar voice growing closer, "DAVE!" she shouts back, she almost doesn't recognise him without the sunglasses. "THERE'S NO LIFEBOATS!"

Her complaint is a more serious one as she hangs onto a railing to keep from sliding down.

The sound of two (painfully young) voices is what gets Clara's attention. In what seems like an instant, she recognizes one as Dave and starts trying to make her way over to them. Which is much easier said than done, considering the ship seems like it's really about to start going down (and Clara's thankful that she ditched the dress somewhere below deck when she put on the wet suit, since it would only complicate things).

She isn't quite sure how she manages to pull it off, but Clara manages to make her way over to the rail and holds onto it for dear life. Logically, she knows she should go up since that's her best bet. But there's something much stronger than logic at work here, and that's her motherly instinct. And what it's telling her right now is that there are two kids below her, one of whom she knows and cares for deeply, and if something happened to either of them and she could have prevented it? She would never be able to forgive herself.

So, maybe it's not the smartest move since she needs to go up, but instead she starts climbing down. And the next time she glances down, she sees a little girl in yellow and a Dave who doesn't have sunglasses (which is a shock of its very own). "I know that this is stating the obvious, but you two can talk once we're up there."

When it turns out to be Clem, Dave is overjoyed. Of all the assholes on this godforsaken ship she deserves to survive the most. It's then and there that Dave makes the silent desicion to see her through to the end, but that involves listening to her and he's not entirely sure what she said. She doesn't like goats? Alright, Dave won't pick and choose the appropriateness of last confessions, but it's soon after that he realizes what she actually said is much, much worse than a hatred of goats.

"What? Are you..? FUUUUUUUUCK." The swear practically echoes through the wind just in time for Clara to make an appearance. Again, he feels a hope and protectiveness flicker in him and he won't waste time not following her direction. This could be the last leg, they could be safe. "Affirmative, Mombot." He won't start moving until he can see that Clem is and he'll call out to be sure. "You okay there, Lady Clemington?!"

Edited 2014-07-24 17:51 (UTC)

Clementine winces as he swears but well, she's well past the age of correcting people about it and this is definitely a situation where it can be excused. Her fingers ache where she cling and after watching Dave draw closer Clem starts to climb again herself.

The direction from the woman above them only helps encourage her. "Y-yeah." it's too quiet to be heard, muttered mostly to herself.

As she gets over the railing and begins to crawl up the tilting deck Clementine's surprised to hear Dave call her the name from their game at the crowning party. It hardly seems the time and place but hearing it is comforting in another way, a distraction to take the edge off the fear of the cold dark water awaiting them if they should slip. "Could be worse, Lord Davemont!" she called back.

Clara debates climbing down just a little bit more. On one hand, if something goes horribly wrong and she slips, that means her chances of getting out of the Arena fly out the window when she's so close to winning. But on the other hand, there are kids down there and, if push comes to shove, she'd happily try to find a way to let one of them win instead.

Maternal instincts completely override self-preservation instincts in this situation (and really, in almost any situation), so she starts climbing down all the more. "How are you two holding up? We're close to the top, I promise!"

Not super close, mind you. Just close enough that she can say that as encouragement without feeling like a monster for lying to a pair of kids.

The only thing Dave feel more than aching is adrenaline at this point in time. He's sore all over from his fight and from all the tumbles and trips he's taken trying to navigate this thing, but if he can get Clara and Clem over the last leg it might not be a total waste of a day. He almost wants to tell Clara to stop when he sees her climbing further down. Shits dangerous, but it might be a good idea to get her a little closer to Clem.

All the while he's glancing around for threats, making sure some asshole isn't coming up behind to try attack his posse. For the moment, despite how fucking cold and rickety this is, it seems like the easy part.

"We are mutually displeased with the service, madam." He calls out through the wind, trying to look as calm as can be as he maneuvers his way upward. He's a fast climber, generally, so the fact that he's lagging behind for a reason might be obvious. "Don't worry, we got this. We're both part monkey." He follows up, wanting to ease her concerns as best he can.

Clementine laughs a little at Dave's comment, a sort of high nervous giggle that the wind steaks away almost as soon as it escapes her mouth. She saw monkeys once in a zoo, maybe if she thinks back hard enough she can channel some of that for real.

The deck is tilting more steeply by the moment and her fingers and knees are being rubbed raw for every hard fought hold to heave herself up further. Clem risks a glance down at Dave to make sure he's okay and, oh, that is a long drop. Pushing upwards she can see a wall that, while vertical when the ship was floating before, has now turned horizontal with the stern in the air. If they can make it there, with Clara climbing down, maybe they can rest a little.

She can't help wondering how this arena ends though, if it's like the big ones and only one person can win... no, stop thinking, just climb. With effort Clementine heaves herself upwards, too tired to talk more. The distance to Clara closes to a few feet, then almost nothing at all as Clementine tries to scramble onto the wall-turned-platform.

Clara laughs slightly at Dave's remarks. After this remarkably long, amazingly distressing day, the humor's completely welcome. It can help her focus on something other than the fact she's sore all over and wet, despite the wet suit. Though it leaves her wide open for that small stab to the heart from him calling the pair of them monkeys and all the memories of Alex referring to David as a monkey at home. But there are much more important things to focus on, like surviving this.

As soon as Clara notices what the girl's doing, she follows her lead and, taking a leap of faith (literally), makes her way onto the platform. While it's not the most solid thing, it's still better than having those rails under her bare feet. All Clara wants to do is sink down and sit for a few minutes, but she isn't sure that she'd be able to muster up the energy to do so if she did.

Which is when it strikes her that she's never met the little girl in the yellow dress before. She'd seen her around, of course. Hell, Clara had thought about her and the fact that she was so damn young and yet they still had dragged her into this. "Getting on here was smart thinking," she tells her with a warm smile before looking over the edge at Dave. "You're real close. Do you think you'll need a hand getting up here?"

It's all Dave can do not to continuously poke fun at this situation. He's stressed and emotionally exhausted from the amount of times he's had to see his brother die, but he rarely lets himself express anything beyond mild annoyance at a situation. Making jokes is the easy way to get him back onto pretending this isn't a big deal, which is difficult in itself.

He makes a face up at Clem when she looks down, if only to distract her from the fact that it's probably a pretty bad view with or without him making ugly faces. Once it looks as if Clem is safe, he'll start to climb faster. It's nothing he hasn't done before, granted, climbing the satellite tower on the roof of your apartment isn't quite the same when there isn't a large body of ice-cold, shark-filled water waiting under you.

"Nah." He calls out, not looking particularly worried as he scales the last few lengths so he can reach up and swing himself onto the platform. God, ow. He doesn't have many of those left in him. The bruises are forming vividly now, blood tinting the purple of his shirt and the tips of his hair. It's been a long day, obviously. He'll brace his hands on his knees to take a moment to catch his breath and wheeze out: "I'm too old for this ship." He doesn't stay in that position long, at least, he's straightening up and getting back into alert mode, looking appraisingly at Clem and Clara and wondering whether he should ask the painful question. Someone has to.

"Are we the only ones left?"

"I think it was more tired thinking." Clementine says shakily, sitting down in a heap of wet clothing. That jump down the woman did was pretty impressive, Clem's not sure she would have had the guts to do that. She joins her in looking over the edge as Dave climbs the last few feet and joins them.

"Dave, you're hurt!" she gapes as she gets a closer look at him. Clementine's scraped and bruised herself but Dave looks like he got into an actual fight somewhere. "I don't know... I can't see anyone else."

It's accompanied by a swallow at what that could mean.

Wait. Did he just really pun on Lethal Weapon? Not that she's that surprised, but it's still a bit of a surprise. "You and me both, kid."

Before Clem even says anything about his injuries, Clara notices them and is suddenly at a loss about what to do. There's no first aid kit or even just water and something to clean his wounds with. And that's not even touching on the little bit of bruising that she can see. The best that she can think of is tearing his shirt to wipe him down, but that doesn't seem like it'll be that helpful.

So instead she chooses to focus on the more important things at hand. "I haven't seen anyone for a while, other than you two." She doesn't know what that could mean and she isn't sure if she wants to. Wyatt had told her that there were smaller Arenas with multiple winners before, after all. That's how he became a Victor after all. So maybe there was a chance that the three of them could get out of the Arenas for good.

"Whether or not we're the only ones left, it doesn't mean much if we don't survive this thing."

"Someone jumped me. Then I had to jump someone else, but I ditched him." Because he heard Clem scream, of course, but he won't say that. He also fails to mention the fact that he kicked the first guy overboard. It isn't just the way the ship sways that makes him feel sick, but the heightened sensations in every other regard make it hurt less. He hopes that by not saying anymore about it, it will be obvious that he isn't hurting much. Even if he really, really is.

"There was a guy down below, like I said. I dunno if he made it someplace else. Fucker deserves to fall overboard." He shrugs, not shying away from the vitriol for the stranger. He wants to ask about people he knows and people he saw around, but he doesn't really want to know the answers.

"What's the plan? Keep scaling, and then what? Drum circle for peace?" He doesn't mean to sound demanding or skeptical, but he's worried. There's hope that they'll all make it through, but it seems like something they would have announced long ago if it were true. He still wants to hope, because he doesn't want to have to imagine Clara or Clem picking between each other, he doesn't factor himself into that equation.

Whoever the people were Dave fought against she's glad he's the one here and not them.

"I don't know what else to do but keep climbing. We'll freeze to death if we end up in the water." Clementine nods (and that's if the sharks don't get them first), her gaze still on Dave worriedly and occasionally skipping over to Clara. "I can't see anything good to make a raft out of either."

Every second they sit here the ship is sinking steadily lower into the water, they can't afford to rest for long.

"We just ride the ship down and hope some doors or something else we can float on get knocked loose." What Clara fails to mention about her plan is that she isn't sure how much of what they showed in Titanic could actually work as a legitimate survival technique.

And, last she checked, Jack and Rose didn't have to deal with sharks on top of insane ex-fiances who wanted their diamond back and a sinking ship. But it's what they have to work with right now, and it's a risk worth taking.

Dave can feel Clem's gaze on him and it's obvious he isn't doing much to stop her worrying. He vaguely considers turning around and making a face at her, but there are more important things to worry about than Clem showing a little concern for him.

"Alright, operation 'I'll never let go' is go." He's resigned to agreeing, even he doesn't imagine this will end well. He's repositioning himself, glancing up the span of the ship as he tries to map out the quickest and easiest path up the ship.

"Clem why don't you g- Woah, shit-" He stumbles over his words as his legs give out under him. The ship he'd been staring up at is starting to tilt at a much faster pace and the wet ground has no traction with these shitty dress shoes. His skinny frame is hitting the wall and rolling backward with nothing to grip onto before he's flung off solid ground. By some miracle, he manages to get a grip onto the ledge and god it's fucking hurting his hands to support his weight. "Fffuck." He can't help letting out a grunt of absolute pain, knuckles going white from the strain he's giving himself trying to lift himself back up.

Edited 2014-07-27 05:23 (UTC)

That doesn't sound like a foolproof plan to Clementine but honestly it's the best they can hope for right now. She nods firmly, "Okay," she starts to say, "I've still got my rope if--"

Whatever Clem was going to say is lost forever as the ship suddenly lurches further back. The world tilts and moves in a terrifying blur as she suddenly goes sliding backwards, scrabbling and twisting desperately for any purchase she can possibly find with a frightened cry.

Her hand catches finally with a painful yank at her shoulder on the edge of the ledge at the opposite side from Dave and Clementine realises with horror the hundreds of feet there is below them both to plummet. The sharks won't even get a chance, the fall will almost certainly kill her first. She desperately tries to swing her other hand up, to resist panic even as frightened gasps pass her lips.

There's no way she's going to do this, she's going to slip and fall any moment. Clementine simply doesn't have the strength to pull herself back up.

Clara doesn't know what to do. Usually she can keep her head clear in and make quick decisions under duress. It's one of her best traits. But this isn't like most of the other choices she's had to make, hell the only one it might even compare to is deciding whether or not to say yes to OmniCorp when it came to Alex, and even that was really a no-brainer when she got down to it (no matter how much that decision hurt).

But this...she doesn't know how to choose. In a perfect world she'd be able to haul both of them up and they'd all be able to climb to (relative) safety, but she isn't sure if either of them can hold on that long. And that's not even thinking about the fact that she's starting to get tired.

Her next action isn't her choosing between them, because she would never. But the girl (and it strikes her that she doesn't even know her name) is so damn young, maybe only a few years older than her son, and she can't imagine her being able to hold on as long as Dave probably can. So she gets down on her knees, hoping that the suit might give her a little traction, and grabs a hold of Clementine's wrists. "I've got you," she says, trying to sound as calm and soothing as possible when, in fact, she's terrified. "Dave, I need you to hold on for just another minute, and once you're back up here we'll start heading up. We're going to make it through this, I promise."

There is a resounding chorus of fuck, fuck, fuck coursing through Dave's head the moment he realises Clem was thrown as well. There's relief in the fact that she's holding on, but as much as Clara wants to believe it, his arms don't have the strength to hold him much longer. He sucks in a deep breath, but there's no renewed energy from it, just exhaustion and finally some clarity. There's absolutely no way the three of them are going to make it out of this, and Dave knows the Capitol better than to take this as anything but a sign.

He remains silent and thankful when it's clear what she's doing, but that doesn't mean he's going to be forthcoming with his own choices. His body is shaking so hard, he barely needs to let go. It just sort of happens in an instant, before he has the chance to hold onto anymore hope of this going another way. He shuts his eyes, searching for something witty and thoughtful to finish on, something the fucking cameras will love, but his brain is a fuzzy, terrified mess and he can only manage one last word before he lets his hand pull back as discreetly as possible.

"Nope."

There are worse words to end on, he thinks. It could have been fuck. His heart is still beating hard against his chest as he descends, the air rushing past to make him all the more freezing. But he's not cold anymore, he's just there, watching the wall get further and further away and thinking how damn nice it would be if he could fly right now. Fear is gripping him tightly, but there isn't any regret in his mind. If he can get Clem and Clara out of the Arenas, then one dramatic death would be worth it. He can pay his dues, because he can be good for something, for once. He didn't fuck this one up.

By now he's a blip in the distance to Clem and Clara and the impact is enough to knock the lights out of him just as he feels the nip of cold water when he hurtles into the depths of it.

Clementine feels warm hands grasp her wrists and tears her gaze away from the drop to meet Clara's eyes. The relief that floods her is undeniable, even as her fear for Dave escalates. She tries to help Clara pull her up, feet scrabbling without purchase, the muscles in her arms screaming with exhaustion but if she can just get this last burst of adrenaline to carry her through in time to save Dave then everything can be okay, they can make it up, all three of them.

If she can just --

"DAVE!" her voice carries above the wind as she turns her head sharply when he speaks, when his hand slips and Dave plummets downwards too fast for her to keep track of, just the echo of his final word left behind. "Dave, no! No!"

Stunned disbelief is all she can feel in those seconds, one moment he was there and the next gone.

Someone once made a remark to Clara about how every mom wants to be supermom and find the best way to juggle everything and make sure their kids are always safe without feeling too intrusive and all that jazz. Right now, Clara wishes she were a literal supermom and could find a way to hold on to Clem and find a way to magically reach out and grab Dave and pull them both up.

Obviously that doesn't happen.

She doesn't care if she'll see him back in the Capitol, looking as if nothing happened. She'll still have nightmares about him falling when (if, really) she goes to bed tonight. And right now she can't even scream, the most that comes out is a small, strangled sound.

For a moment she almost forgets about what she has to do. How she needs to haul the girl up so they can climb to the top. It finally clicks in her head to pull, and she does, bringing the her back onto the platform.

Clara has to steel herself for a moment before she says anything, because right now she needs to focus on keeping this girl alive so she can win and Dave's sacrifice won't be in vain. "We need...we need to keep climbing. You can ride on my back if you want."

Clementine feels herself hauled up, collapsing onto the platform with a hiccup that betrays how close she is to crying right now. She wants to cry, she really does, wants to shout at how horrible it all is. It's probably only the shock of it that's stopping her.

Now's not the time to cry, she knows. That's later, if she survives this. Clementine hiccups again and her eyes are glistening in the dark with what she's holding back but her voice is firm and determined if strained.

"I can make it."

She's going to make it, she has to, for Dave and -- so she doesn't have to do this stupid thing all over again. "I can."

Her cold fingers flex and Clementine wishes she was bigger, stronger, that she didn't constantly have to have others worry over her.

Mini Arena 2

[closed to Clem and Clara.]

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