thearena | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Sandy and anyone interested in her.
What: Spying on others, trying to stay out of trouble and hopefully finding Pruna.
Where: Starting at The Platform Station
when: week two
Warnings/notes: Since Sandy will be using the TVs in the Platform Station, feel free to pop in with a little bit about what she might see you doing wherever you are on the island.

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As far as partners go, Sandy was pretty sure she must be the worst one to have.

As soon as the game had begun she was off like a shot, gathering up supplies and trying to vanish into the forest. Her size was her advantage as once she dove for cover under some bushes more then a few larger tributes had trampled past her not noticing her as she heaved to catch her breath and protect her goodies.

Once things had calmed down, Sandy lay still in her bush for what felt like hours. She wanted to be absolutely sure that everyone was gone. This was rewarded when she heard a few stragglers come back to pick over the area for anything left behind.

Finally, when she was sure the area was clear she rose up out of the leaves and vines, and went over what she had managed to grab in her frantic flight from the starting position. An impressive haul to say the least. Much better then last time.

Slinking along the edge of the clearing she was alert, listening for any signs of trouble. It was in this slow and methodical fashion she traveled until she found the door.

It was on the south side of the platform where the Cornucopia had been. A rusted door that looked like it had been forgotten in the madness that accompanied every arena opening.

Scurrying through the grass Sandy's glances darted all around for other tributes, as well as frequently to the grass to make sure she wasn't about to step into a trap. Just the thought was enough to make Sandy's leg throb with memories of her mangling from the last arena.

It took some effort, alot of effort actually but the pain in her fingers and shoulders from wrestling with the door would be forgotten as she slipped inside and discovered what secrets this station held.

Televisions! So many and they were functional! She could see all around the arena with these things. Nothing behind the scenes but one by one she picked out faces she knew before the screens could flick to another view.

Was this supposed to be here? Had she stumbled across some forgotten gamemaker station on accident?

No...she couldn't possibly be so lucky.

Still she was alone and with all these screens she was likely to see attackers coming before they found her. Time to crack open a can of tuna and see what was on TV.
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That was a full week ago. Her food supplies dwindling Sandy knows she can't stay here forever. She needs to use the bow and arrows that she won in the cornucopia and try to hunt down some more food.

...or other tributes.

Guilt gnawed at her guts as she scanned the TVs again. Pruna had been hurt...badly. And she hadn't been able to leave to go after her because...much to Sandy's conflicted feelings, the door appeared to lock tight every so often. By the time it was open again Sandy had lost sight of Pruna on the cameras.

And so here she sat, desperate for a plan that didn't involve losing her very easy to defend hiding place but also allowed for her to get food, water, and Pruna. There was no doubt about it. She was going to have to leave soon.

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Mindy gave Sandy a skeptical look. "Mentor and handler maybe, whatever the hell they are. But stylist? What the fuck do I look like, Paris Hilton? I'm going to fight and kill and die, not look pretty."

She made a disgusted noise. "I never like reality shows. Granted, I might actually watch something like this to pick up pointers. I already lost my weapons back in the Cornucopia."

Sandy just smirked "Yeah that's how I felt when I found out about the whole thing...except alot more yelling about how it's all wrong and they can't do this to us. Turns out they can."

She held up a finger, "Your mentor is someone who's already won a previous hunger game. They'll train with you to make you smarter, faster and stronger." Two fingers "Your handler takes you to parties, makes sure you meet important people with lots of money who might want to use that money to help you win. They also teach you proper manners." She rolled her eyes clearly disliking that part. Third finger "The stylists pick your outfits for parties and interviews and things. The more you fight them the worse you'll look. Trust me no matter how stupid we think the clothes are? Capitol citizens just eat it up with a spoon."

Mindy returned the smile. "Where I'm from, you learn pretty quick when they have you by the balls. Until I saw you all I knew was that they threw me into some kinda death battle. I don't have a weapon yet, but if someone picks me off from afar, I can't do shit about it. If they come close, then I'll fight them until I do my best to kill them. I don't just kill random people for the fun of it. Not my style."

Not yet anyway, she knew. The qualifiers were dangling in the air, it was clear as day.

Mindy made a groan. "Look, if they wanted that they coulda left me with my outfit, not stuck me here half ass. Who the hell am I supposed to scare like this? I look like I should be going to school right now."

Something she was counting on, actually.

That made Sandy raise an eyebrow.

"Well if you've fought and killed before you should know that how you look is just as much an advantage as it is a problem. What kinda crap world did you come from where you had to fight and kill?"

Of course Mindy was far from the first child killer that Sandy had met here but it still upset her a little.

She had a point. Mindy may have hated looking like she did right now, but she was in a death battle right now. The purple with the cape would have been too much of a give away. Better to stay incognito and small and indistinguishable amongst the foliage.

"Modern Earth, where I'm from. New York. Criminals get away with shit, so I pretty much go Charles Bronson on them, but with style."

There was a moment, just a flicker of hope in her eyes before it snuffed out.

"Is your New York full of Super Heroes like Spider-man?" He was one fo the most well known in her time. Previous discussions she'd had with people who knew spider-man though didn't know her world.

Mindy chuckled. "Spider man? He's a guy in a comic book where I'm from! Hell, if Spider Man existed, I wouldn't technically have to do what I do. Besides, Spiderman doesn't have to deal with the messed up guys I do."

Not that she was unaware OF him. She did read comics, after all.

"Darn." She pouted even though she had been expecting disappointment, "I'm from New York too, just not your New York I guess." Though to be fair most the superheroes that had once filled New York were gone by the time Sandy was born.

"In my New York, we've broken off from America, cut ourselves off from the world with a laser web, and the police are way too strict."

"Try damn. It sounds stronger."

Look, she got she was a kid, but that didn't mean she had to sound like a goddamn Archie comic.

"Not 'my' New York? So there really are people who live in alternate universes? That explains that tall fuck in the beginning, and why I swear to god I saw a Ninja Turtle walking around."

She raised an eyebrow. "Ok, that's more than a little fucked up. New York block itself off from America? I always figured it would be some shitty mid west state that would do that first."

She smirked at the language coaching. Pruna would like her.

"Oh yeah, that's Donatello. Watch out for him. He used to be cool but last arena...he went crazy dark." She had been shocked to watch on the TV when she got home just how bad he had broken.

"It was something about how metahumans were ruining the city. People were scared." she tried to explain with her limited knowledge of history.

"Donatello," she said, and was a little bothered by the last comment. "No kidding? I always thought he was the brainy guy. But if this place can turn him dark, then there's no telling who else that can get in that mind set. Guess I'm gonna have to pick and choose how to trust here."

So far her instincts served her well. For now.

"Well, I don't think I'll be visiting your New York soon, or even mine, so I guess it doesn't matter. If you been here before, you've died before, right? How did it happen?"

Not one of her favorite subjects. Her gaze darkened and she suddenly became very interested in twanging the string of her bow.

"Which time? There's been Three...and one almost death just before we got here. Unlike the other three I still have a scar from that one." She muttered bitterly and scratched at her chest unconsciously.

Mindy watched her carefully, noting everything. Poor kid. Dying must not have been a thing she liked, anytime it happened, obviously. And she still didn't know how to fight. That bugged her.

"No kidding? Sorry to hear that. Musta been rough. I've only had two near deaths, you trump me."

Sandy couldn't hold back a bitter laugh.

"Near death is pretty common around here. I hope I never get used to it." but it was true enough that misery loved company. And Mindy sympathizing with her helped some.

"There's not much we can do but play the game. They're just too...big. It's all too big." And now Sandy had gone from hopeful to depressed. in the space of this conversation. Why hadn't she realized talking to a new person would remind her of how hopeless everything seemed?

Mindy shook her head. "I don't believe there is anything too big for me. If I did, I would never be where I am today. If you find something big, start small, but chip away at it. The thing with big is that they think they know everything, but forget there are still small ways to make things matter."

She had learned that on other people, not that they were around to talk about it.

"Besides, all you really need is someone to teach you. That's not too hard."

Sandy didn't look convinced. Actually she looked somewhat nostalgic.

"Maybe. There are some people who are rebelling against the capitol...but the last one who was really effective was tortured and then had her brains blown out on TV." She explained.

As for the teaching, she felt like she was learning a little more from every person she met these days.

"The fuck?!" Mindy was definitely awake now. Of all the things heard, this was, by and large, the last thing she wanted to hear. After all, her father had been made an example of on television, hadn't he? They hadn't seen him die, but they had seen him on fire.

She could still smell the smoke, still see how proud he was, in his eyes, even as strength was leaving him...

Mindy wiped her eyes, angry she had shown that. "What was her name?"

"Ariadne." She answered cold and instantly. That name would be burned into her head forever despite having never met the woman before that day.

"She tried to kill the guy who runs everything. She had a bomb, but before she could do what she planned to do one of the mentors sold her out. Said the Games were necessary to keep the world from falling apart."

There was a pause as Sandy tried to sort through the memories of that night. There was dancing, there was crying...

"Eva. Yeah. That was her name." She concluded. "So they brought Ariadne on TV, injected with something that looked...just awful. And then..." She brought her hand up to mime a gun and flicked her thumb closed as children do when pretending to shoot.

Mindy listened quietly, taking it in. She was sure not to let any expression show on her face: they were watching, she knew that for sure, and anyone doing that would edit this out and make them pay. What she needed to do, what she knew would make sense, was to at least react according. What she WANTED to do, more than that, was to get more information.

"The world," she repeated. "I know a little something about keeping a world from falling apart. So this Ariadne, I'm guessing they didn't bother bringing her ass back to life."

Sandy shook her head glumly.

"Rumors seem to be that if you die outside of the Arena? There's no coming back." She scratched at her chest scar again "I came pretty close once. But I don't plan on finding out for sure."

Dieing in the arena was horrible enough.

Mindy scratched her chin. Bad luck all around then. You had to mind yourself and be nice and docile when it came to the games, and then unleash your inner survivor.

She could adjust to that. Yeah, it was going to take way more information, and she was going to have to play the game, but she could manage that much, even she knew that.

"What do you mean, you came close?"

Sandy shuddered a little, but she knew she couldn't run from these sorts of things.

"There was an outbreak...or something. A bunch of monsters the Capitol created that they couldn't control. Big black things, like armor, acid drool. They sent us tributes in to try and clean em out. I got a little too close to one of their eggs and a thing jumped on my face."

"I remember screaming, it was dark. Someone got it off me...and then pain in my chest. They told me later when I woke up in the med bay that it put a monster in my belly and it burst out my chest."

"Sounds like something out of a bad sci-fi," Mindy said, quelling her panic. She just wound up in a place that had no problem pitting kids against adults and ninja turtles (apparently), but this? That sounded insane, dangerous. Death looked like it was all around them, just BECAUSE. It made no sense. None of this made any sense. Why was she even here? How did it happen?

"How did they, you know, get it out and kill it, or whatever? Actually, fuck that, better question. Whose supposed to be your mentor?"

"Fire and bullets I think." Sandy shrugged. "I was out for most of it."

Ah, now that was a question she had an answer to. "Peeta and Katniss. They're a special case because they were the last mentors to win before they started pulling in people from other worlds. They won the games together which is normally against the rules. But they loved each other so much the gamemakers let it slide." She pulled a face to show just how much she believed in the power of love.

"Lucky you." Mindy was starting to see that none of this was falling into any real sense, and while rationalizing it was really the only thing she could manage, she was seriously starting to wonder how anyone ever got their shit together when they were brought here.

Mindy snorted. "Bullshit. I bet anything it looks good to the audience so they let it go. What's the point of seeing this shit live with death and blood if you can't throw n a little sex appeal, right? Oh, I'm sorry, 'romance.'"