thearena | Closed to Ian and Orc

Entry tags:

Closed to Ian and Orc

Who| Ian and Orc
What| Socialising
Where| Desert arena
When| Night
Warnings/Notes| None

Ian had spent most of his time in the arena so far hiding. It was boring, but it wouldn't get him killed. However, he knew he wouldn't keep getting food and water from sponsors forever if he didn't work for it. Besides, he was cold and perhaps moving around some more would help, even if it was out in the open.

When he emerged, he shivered and put his arms around himself. He'd got thinner due to not having enough to eat or drink and not exercising much. And he'd managed to pick a time when there was a rock monster around. Unsure he'd be able to run, Ian went for getting the monster on his side instead.

"Hello," he said, smiling. "I haven't seen you around here before."

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Orc had been lost for entirely too long and had finally spotted a glowing light in the distance. It seemed as good as anything so he'd trudged his way over to it.

A TV screen. And on it was Howard screaming and on fire. Orc's eyes went wide and he sat down hard as the scene played itself out in gruesome detail.

Then a voice. He turned slowly to glance over his shoulder. "Huh?"

It didn't seem that the rock monster was that interested in him one way or another, but Ian decided to plough on regardless. "I'm Ian."

He looked over at the screen. "Someone you know?" He'd seen enough of those screens from his short forays out to know to ignore them. It was impossible to tell from here whether what they showed was real or not. He suspected not.

Orc looked back to the screen and was silent for a few minutes.

"A friend...from home." That was really all he could think to say about Howard. Everything else would be rude even if it was true.

"It's probably not real," he said reassuringly. A friend from home was a good thing to have here, except that here wasn't a good place for anyone to be. "Whatever happens he'll wake up back in the Capitol perfectly fine."

Orc blinked slowly, his craggy face screwed up into a look confusion.

"Why would that happen?" It just didn't make sense to him. "We're supposed to be killing each other."

"So then we can kill each other all over again with the Capitol needing to bring in new people all the time." Although with the number of people they'd got they probably could have sent fewer into the arena and still kept going for a while, but Ian wasn't going to question that, given that he was happy not to be dying.

None of this made sense to Orc, but any excuse to not look at the TV was a good one to him.

"So we just keep fighting and dieing forever?" No one had told Orc about that part. So maybe he had actually died in the last arena and not just fallen asleep and been moved.

"Perhaps." There wasn't a great deal they could do to stop being put in the arena, but surely there were only so many times the Capitol could do it before they got too old. Although that was far enough in the future it probably counted as forever.

"It's probably better not to think about the future too much."

Orc's expression was unreadable as he soaked in the suggestion. He was so still if it wasn't for the slow steady blinking of his beady little eyes Ian might have wondered if he was asleep. Finally he sighed and closed his eyes completely.

"So just like home then. Another place god doesn't see." It made his stomach drop to consider. But just as God had turned his back on the FAYZ, Orc was sure that the God he had read about wouldn't allow such a place to exist.

Ian wondered if he was very relaxed and very anxious. The long silence suggested the former to him, but his words had suggested the latter.

"I suppose it depends on how religious you are." Ian could make a speech about how God was inscrutable and had a plan, but he didn't believe in that sort of thing himself. "It's not quite every man for himself, though, it's always good to make alliances."

How religious was he? That was a good question. He had always had a fear of god, but that didn't stop him from becoming a sinner. Committing the ultimate sin more then once.

He glanced back to Ian. He knew that word. Alliances were important to normal people. But not him. Not with what he had become.

"Is that what you do?" His voice rumbled deeper then any fourteen year old boy should.

He hesitated over the answer and stepped closer to the screen for the warmth it was giving off while he considered what to say. He opted for the truth in the end. "Sometimes. They've never lasted that long, though."

Well, that sounded ominous. Even to Orc who didn't know what the word ominous meant.

Taking a moment to glance out into the dry unforgiving wasteland he decided he'd rather stay put and try to learn more from this man. A novel concept to Orc who usually just blundered through everything and let other, smarter people tell him what to do.

"Why?"

It was probably just as well it was dark because Ian looked a little guilty for not having put more effort into maintaining alliances and attempted to put his hands in his pockets before remembering he didn't have any in his Superman outfit.

"You never know who to trust. And how long to trust them for." He didn't say that in the last arena he hadn't been able to trust himself. "The Gamemakers don't like alliances, they like to split people up. I wouldn't expect it to be this quiet for long."

"Sounds great." Orc sighed and rubbed the back of his craggy head.

"How do they split people up?" Orc's family had enjoyed reality TV well enough, they were more of a sports family though. He wasn't sure about the ins and outs of manipulation. Just being manipulated.

"In the last arena they set fires in the middle of the night." He looked around uneasily, hoping he wasn't giving anyone ideas about repeating that. "Other random attacks by animals, some more intelligent than others. If you can think of it, they've probably done it or are planning to do it."

None of which sounded reassuring, but that was because none of it was. "Not everyone is out to kill you, though," he added with a small smile.

Orc listened intently. Fire and animals he could handle. He'd lived through all that before...well not the first time but still.

"Why not?" It seemed reasonable to ask. After all they were supposed to be killing one another weren't they? And with how big and dangerous he was Orc reasoned lots of people would want him out of the way.

Ian wrapped his cloak round himself, relaxing a little now it was becoming clear the rock monster wanted to learn more about this place rather than attack him. And Ian was happy enough to teach him.

"Because some people feel its wrong to kill someone, even here." He carefully worded that so it wouldn't give away his opinion on the subject.

A fresh wave of guilt washed over Orc and settled into his stomach like a boulder.

"It is wrong." He muttered sounding sad as he turned his head away. Ian may still have caught a haunted look in his eyes as Orc unwillingly recalled the fuzzy, alcohol soaked memories of his own crimes.

Ian didn't miss the haunted look, but didn't think anything of it. Most people here were murderers, one way or another, even if the people they killed didn't stay dead.

"The Gamemakers have a way of making you forget that." There was a look of distaste on his face. "Or at least, of not making you care that it's wrong."

"They do?" Why did that sound so enticing to him? He had to consider that for a moment.

If they could make him forget that it was wrong...maybe he could stop feeling guilty?

Maybe he could actually forget about Bette and whoever that other kid was!

"How?" He added unable to get excited. There was something wrong about all this. He could feel it.

"I wish I knew." He sighed and slumped a bit. "I think they put something in the food in the last arena." Although that didn't explain why it had affected him so badly. "I don't know yet if they've done it in this one or not."

Orc's eyebrows knitted as he tried very hard to put these thoughts through. It sounded impossible, but then again Orc had gotten used to the impossible. It still amazed him sometimes that he could be surprised or confused by such things.

"What was it like?" Maybe if he knew what to expect he could resist it...or embrace it. He was still working out his feelings on that.

"I don't know." He shook his head. "It felt rational at the time. I didn't feel any different." It was only afterwards, but by then it was too late. "I didn't hear of it affecting any one else, though, so it might not be something you have to worry about." He couldn't be as reassuring as he would have liked, but then this wasn't a particularly reassuring place.

Edited 2013-07-14 20:54 (UTC)

"That doesn't make sense." Orc muttered once again forced to reflect on how much that last sentence applied to his life in the last year.

With a labored sigh he sat down hard, shaking the ground around him and sending a cloud of dust up around his rear where he had landed.

"Don't even know how to die properly in the first place." he grumbled finding the familiar and almost comforting pull of depression telling him to just give up and let the world go on without him. It had to be better then whatever this was right? It was like the FAYZ but with grown ups. And while he had thought back home he missed the grown ups taking care of things, here he was no longer sure even they were in control.

Ian coughed and waved a hand until the dust cleared. "I don't think there's a proper way of doing it. The only permanent way of dying here isn't pleasant by the looks of it. I wouldn't recommend it."

Well, that had Orc's attention.

"How?" He insisted trying to imagine some kind of death more horrible then...oh any of the deaths he had witnessed in the FAYZ. Monster worms, mutant coyotes, being crushed by telekinetic force, being burned to death...the bar for unpleasant was pretty high. He settled those hard beady eyes on Ian waiting for an explanation.

It was horrible and Ian wasn't sure about telling him. On the one hand it was good to be prepared, but on the other hand there were some horrors it was better to be spared.

He shook his head. "There was one person recently who was killed for planting a bomb trying to kill one of the Gamesmakers." He didn't elaborate.

Orc had to think about that one for a moment. "Those guys that were judging me when I got here before the Arena started?" He presumed those had to be the game makers. And all things considered he couldn't exactly blame anyone for trying to off them. They were kind of jerks for sentencing people to eternal death match. People like Howard who couldn't defend himself in a fair fight. The confusion was spelled out all across his face as he tried to imagine the scene like it was off a crime show on daytime TV.

Ian nodded. "I think they're in charge of everything that goes on in here. They must have some amazing technology to achieve all of it." He sounded excited about it. That was the part that he'd love to know more about, but was unlikely to get to find out.

"More like magic." Orc agreed. He could barely even understand technology from where he came from let alone whatever made it possible to kill him, bring him back, put TVs in the middle of no where or bring people from one world to another without them knowing.

"I guess they must have been mad. The person who died." He decided looking up at the sky as deep in thought as Orc ever really got while sober.

"I don't know." He hadn't known her, which made it hard to guess. "Maybe she just wanted a way out of here." Ian couldn't fault her reasoning, even if the execution hadn't worked so well.

He shivered a little and pulled his cloak further around him. "Aren't you cold?"

"Can't blame her for that." There were more then a few kids who had chosen the quick was out back home. Or who had waited till they were old enough and then just let the poof happen so they were taken away by...whatever force took away all the kids around 15.

Orc had resisted when the time came, but out of fear. Nothing else. Pants wetting, cry himself to sleep at night fear. And every minute after that he wished that he had just let it take him.

"No." He snapped back into reality at the next question. "Can't feel as much as I used to." Hot or cold didn't matter as much since the accident. He could feel it, it just didn't bother him. Then again he had been in a mild climate so he could only imagine how he'd fair in like...a blizzard.

Ian couldn't blame her either. She'd been brave to try such a thing and she'd paid the price for it. Anything else the rest of them tried would have to be a lot better planned. If it was even possible to succeed.

But it was a morbid topic, especially in the dark and the cold. It was easier to discuss this other person who Ian didn't really understand yet. "Used to?" he asked. "What happened to change that?"

Orc looked at him quizzically, then realized that Ian didn't know the truth. It was almost funny...if Orc found anything funny anymore. It had been a long time to be honest.

"This...all of this." He gestured to himself gently. "I used to just be you know...a guy." He explained without really explaining anything.

Ian looked at him closely. It didn't sound likely, but then he'd read comics as a child and seen what a spider bite could do to Peter Parker. So perhaps it was true. "What happened?" he asked softly.

Why was he telling him this? Because he was just thankful to have an adult to talk to?

Ian did put off that responsible "Grown up" vibe that Orc had gone so long without. That vibe belonged to people like Sam and Astrid.

"I was ripped apart by coyotes." He explained without really explaining. "When I woke up I was like...this. Except with some skin and stuff. But the skin came off."

Ian blinked, struggling for a moment to work out what to say to that. It wasn't exactly something he'd ever expected to hear. "At least you're alive." Which he was sure couldn't be said of most people who were ripped apart by coyotes, but it didn't feel like enough. "And it's an advantage here."

"Yeah...lucky me." But Orc didn't sound so pleased to be alive let alone granted such an advantage.

"Some people are better off dead." He muttered looking down with a sigh. He had wanted to die for so long he could hardly feel relief for being such a sturdy powerful creature. He was trapped in a prison of stone that came with him wherever he went.

Ian shook his head. "That's not for us to decide. No one's better off dead," he said softly. "There's always hope, even with the worst torture."

Orc gave him a sideways glance. "Yeah, it's for the capitol to decide...jerks"

The desert sands caught up in a breeze and whipped against Orc's back. His position shielded Ian from the worst of it.

"How is there hope?" He urged daring to consider for a moment that Ian might know more then him. He was an adult after all.

Ian still turned a little, to stop any of the sand getting in his eyes. It had stung enough the first time.

"There's hope of rescue." He still thought that if the Doctor found a way here he'd get them all out. "And there's hope that we'll be able to find a way out of here one day. As long as you're alive there's always a chance things can get better."

Orc grunted feeling tired trying to agree with Ian and unable to find even a shred of hope.

"I hope you're right." That was the closest he could come for now.

"So do I," Ian admitted, because the longer this all went on the less hope there was.

((OOC: That seems like a good place to end the thread))

[[OOC: Sounds good to me, btw I finally saw some of Ian on a documentary type thing about older episodes of Dr. Who. So I finally got to see that you have a solid handle of him. Well done :) ]

((OOC Thanks!))

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