I'm Just Trying to Take This New Skin for a Spin [Open]

[celebrityskinned]

WHO| Venus Dee Milo and open!
WHAT| Various Arena encounters.
WHEN| First week of the Arena.
WHERE| Anywhere you want!
WARNINGS| None yet.

She has a map now.

Over the last few days, making about one 'jump' an hour or so, Venus has cased out the ground floor of the space port and gathered supplies for herself, Jet and Albert. Some of it's food, some of it's water, some are just sharp pieces of metal or strange vials that she's certain could make for a decent weapon. A strip of spacesuit cloth, tied over the edges of the upturned helmet, has transformed it into a handy messenger bag, and she's sure that the design will be all the rage in the Capitol soon. She's filled it each time with whatever scraps might help them last the weeks and track down the people who most definitely won't be winning.

She can tell by the way her skin seems to hum when she's done teleporting that she's been pushing it lately, and because she's with people willing to call her out on it, she rests. She sleeps while Albert keeps watch, keeping the injured Jet company while he takes his turns. She eats from the little dehydrated packets and she doesn't do more than two 'jumps' in an hour if she can help it. She makes sure to clean the makeshift bandage on the stab wound in the side of her chest on the regular. After they figure out the pattern to the gravity failures, she makes sure that they're all strapped in to the ground for the twice-hourly jolt.

When she teleports, it's nearly painful to see, a trick of the eye as reality arranges itself in perverse ways to squeeze her out of the dimension and back into it. She seems shrouded in the afterglow of lights that clutter up an eye after a flash, and then disappears into a blind spot that vision should not have allowed. She emerges in the same way, silently but preceded with the colorful blots of the optic nerve going haywire. And when she's crawled out of the pocket dimension she travels through, she only sometimes remembers to apologize for startling anyone she comes upon.

She may just teleport right next to you.

Comments

[reassures]

Venus does in fact teleport right next to Nill, and if having strange powers has taught her anything, it's that startling a telepath is not a good idea. They're on the more difficult side to actually startle, so when Venus appears out of nowhere right beside her Nill nearly jumps out of her skin.

Thankfully she isn't running on enough instinct that she tries to actually hurt Venus. Nill jumps back, the knife in her hand raised, defensive but ready to actually be used if she needs to. It isn't until she actually realizes who it is that some of the tension leaks out of her shoulders, though not entirely.

If they both wake up alive in the Capitol after this they're gonna need to have a talk about your teleporting, Venus.

[celebrityskinned]

"Whoa!" Venus puts a hand up, ready to try and disarm Nill and extremely glad it doesn't come to that. She quickest way she knows how to get a knife out of someone's hand will leave them with a dislocated shoulder. "Sorry, I never know if I'm about to sneak up on someone when I do that."

Nill. She's glad to see Nill, glad that the brave girl who wanted to do for others what she felt no compulsion to do for herself has made it this far. They have a kindred spirit, even if it's of a tragic nature.

"I'm only scouting. You got nothing to fear from me." She doesn't feel as if that needs to be reiterated, but it can't hurt.

[reassures]

It's almost impossible to feel relief in a place like this, but it's about as close as Nill manages to get when she nods her head and lowers her knife. She doesn't stow it elsewhere, because that would hardly be the best course of action, but it's obvious enough that she doesn't find Venus to be a threat.

"Venus. I won't hurt you," Nill says to her through the telepathic link, but she makes sure to stay back, unmoving, knife lowered, not a threat. It's rare that people react well to a sudden... something talking in their head. She'd be more confused if they didn't.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus' eyes flick up for a moment, as if she's searching inside her own head for the voice, but she doesn't panic. She's lived too long around telepaths to find it anything other than vaguely surprising. She meets Nill's eyes.

Do you know if your telepathy is being recorded? She tries to repeat that sentence over and over again in her head, hoping Nill will pick up on it.

[reassures]

"It's not. If it was I think I would be able to tell. They don't seem to have nulls either."

She tilts her head a little, as if making sure that Venus is okay with her presence, and then peers down the hall they're in. She's spoken with enough people that the Capitol must know she's a telepath, but Nill didn't really think they would be unaware of that to begin with. They had to have some idea of what it was to make sure she couldn't use it. It doesn't mean she wants them knowing about anything important she talks about with Venus however, since they already find her suspicious. She'd been branded after all. She didn't want Venus getting into more trouble.

"The last time Lonestar posted someone told me there could be chips in our heads. That seems the most likely right now."

[celebrityskinned]

I hope you're right. They have chips in our arms, too, tracking chips. How far does your telepathy reach?

She gives Nill a tight nod. Don't go too deep, though, please. It's partially her own insecurities and embarrassments and partially because she had a few telepaths back in her days at the Institute try to rummage through her brain and find things they didn't want in their memories.

I'm- I'm going to switch to words. She has messy feelings here. She wants to be able to organize them, like scooping up wild flowers into a bouquet, or shattered glass into a tidy pile for the broom. "I'm so sorry about what happened to- to Nico."

[reassures]

"I won't. I promise."

The very few times Nill had actually pried into someone's mind had been rare, and almost always a necessity. The one and only time she did it with intent was a mistake, and she learned from it. Never act on what you hear. Never listen more than you need to. Respect the minds of others. They were easy enough rules to keep in mind when she could.

It feels like the floor drops out from under her. Like something slips from her hands, and Nill tilts her head down, as if to watch it shatter across the ground. Nico. The dark-haired boy that was angry at the world, but more than anything angry at himself.

Nill shuts her eyes tightly, and she exhales slowly. Her eyes burn. Her ears ring. Nico was gone, she'd seen his face in the sky, but she didn't know who killed him. Not this time.

"I hope he went home," the voice says quietly, and she really, really does.

But she watched bits and pieces of the last real Arena. She knows what happened. She knows who hurt Nico.

Some day, somewhere down the line, Black Tom was going to pay for killing him.

[celebrityskinned]

Me too.

She didn't mean to make Nill cry, and for a moment she wonders if those tears will fall and reaches a hand forward. She pauses short, doesn't take a step forward to bridge the gap between them. What can she say? What can she do?

Can I hug you?

It's not just because Nill's in pain; it's because this is a shared pain. It's because Venus trails behind her a wake of broken bodies and hearts, all these people who never rose from each Arena. It's because each one has ripped a section out of her and replaced it with sorrow.

[reassures]

Nill doesn't lift her head, and she doesn't open her eyes. She knows that Venus understands this particular brand of pain, she can feel it coming off her, the empathy, the sympathy.

There's a trail of bodies behind Nill too, many gone from their own doings and decisions, but they drag on her nonetheless, and now Nico di Angelo is another number to the count.

"Yes," The voice says, though Nill still doesn't open her eyes, and she does her best not to let any tears fall.

[celebrityskinned]

At first Venus is as gentle as snow falling, but soon there's an element of desperation to the hug, the embrace turning momentarily to a cling. And then relaxing again, so as not to crush the wings.

There must be some way to do right by them.

[reassures]

She was so set on not collecting anymore ghosts, too. She'd tried so hard, she had tried to let go without putting people at a distance, and she hadn't done a bad job of it even if it hadn't been the best either.

But for this, she can make an exception. She can carry Nico's ghost with her too, another ball on the chain she insists on carrying.

Nill doesn't hug Venus back nearly as tightly, but she might hear Nill sniffle. Might feel it when she shifts one of her arms to wipe at her eyes.

"There is. We just need time."

Time enough to make sure that this place and the people who ran it came crashing down.

[celebrityskinned]

She does, but she doesn't comment. There isn't any point in further highlighting their shared agony. She lets go and takes a step back, as if she never hugged Nill in the first place.

I'm staying with Albert and Jet in the Arena while I look for Kankri. You're welcome to join us.

[reassures]

"I need to try to find some of my friends too. I'll try to let you know if I find Kankri. I'm staying with the Initiate right now."

She didn't know Venus very well, but if she was actively thinking of Kankri it shouldn't be difficult to find her in the jumbled mess of thoughts bouncing around this place.

"Be careful."

[celebrityskinned]

Venus has her issues with Initiate, but none so strong that they would follow her into the Arena. Her walls between the two worlds are stronger than most.

You too. She nods, reaches over, squeezes Nill's shoulder, and then vanished the same way she appeared.