Eva Salazar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vissernone) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thearena2013-10-30 07:34 pm
vissernone) wrote in thearena2013-10-30 07:34 pm
Entry tags:
Swallowed Waist Deep in the Gore of the Forest [Closed]
Who| Eponine, Sigma, Eva, R
What| Eva gets allies and finds a zombie.
When| First day, then later that week.
Where| Near the Cornucopia, then near the labs.
Warnings| Zombies.
Some part of her never left the Arena. It's that part of her that slips into survival mode like a lamprey over the rocks of a brook - fast, barely-seen, but there and deadly. It's in the way her head tilts at a natural angle to hear best, the way she doesn't much smile in the Arena. The way the tips of her fingers itch.
She's made a quick bandage for Eponine's wound out of part of the girl's shirt, and, after lumbering around like some three-legged monster a while, found a large tree where the roots make a natural cave. Eponine's exhausted by then, and Eva decides it's better she sleeps now than later, when Eva needs to take a sleeping shift, so she lets Eponine rest and camouflages the entrance of the shelter with fronds of ferns and leaves.
Her hands aren't clammy when wrapped around her spear. It's only humidity, the same thickness in the air that makes her hair twist and coil like damp reeds in flame. She stalks through the tall grass near the Cornucopia, hunched low as she finds the food that some people missed. She stoops over a crate of apples and, tucking in her shirt and pulling the belt as tight as she can, begins to stash apples down her front.
She pauses as she hears something, a rustle in the grass a few yards from her. She stays still, nothing moving except the breath over her lower teeth, except a bead of sweat snailing its way down her temple.
Point forward, ready to lunge, she parts the reeds with her spear.
And she stumbles onto Sigma.
--
With her allies guarding her considerable haul of supplies, Eva feels more comfortable fanning out over the Arena and learning the terrain. She makes a mental map of landmarks, of trees, but she doesn't trust the sun when the Gamemakers are involved.
It rains, and when the storm ends her clothes don't dry. She leans her spear against a tree only to wring out her hair.
She sees a series of buildings, and she doesn't trust them. The odds of someone else being in there is high; the odds of it being a trap is higher. She passes, melting back into the jungle.
She pauses when she hears a gurgle, a rattle. She changes how she holds the spear, using it to lead - if someone's dying, their murderer may be near.
What| Eva gets allies and finds a zombie.
When| First day, then later that week.
Where| Near the Cornucopia, then near the labs.
Warnings| Zombies.
Some part of her never left the Arena. It's that part of her that slips into survival mode like a lamprey over the rocks of a brook - fast, barely-seen, but there and deadly. It's in the way her head tilts at a natural angle to hear best, the way she doesn't much smile in the Arena. The way the tips of her fingers itch.
She's made a quick bandage for Eponine's wound out of part of the girl's shirt, and, after lumbering around like some three-legged monster a while, found a large tree where the roots make a natural cave. Eponine's exhausted by then, and Eva decides it's better she sleeps now than later, when Eva needs to take a sleeping shift, so she lets Eponine rest and camouflages the entrance of the shelter with fronds of ferns and leaves.
Her hands aren't clammy when wrapped around her spear. It's only humidity, the same thickness in the air that makes her hair twist and coil like damp reeds in flame. She stalks through the tall grass near the Cornucopia, hunched low as she finds the food that some people missed. She stoops over a crate of apples and, tucking in her shirt and pulling the belt as tight as she can, begins to stash apples down her front.
She pauses as she hears something, a rustle in the grass a few yards from her. She stays still, nothing moving except the breath over her lower teeth, except a bead of sweat snailing its way down her temple.
Point forward, ready to lunge, she parts the reeds with her spear.
And she stumbles onto Sigma.
--
With her allies guarding her considerable haul of supplies, Eva feels more comfortable fanning out over the Arena and learning the terrain. She makes a mental map of landmarks, of trees, but she doesn't trust the sun when the Gamemakers are involved.
It rains, and when the storm ends her clothes don't dry. She leans her spear against a tree only to wring out her hair.
She sees a series of buildings, and she doesn't trust them. The odds of someone else being in there is high; the odds of it being a trap is higher. She passes, melting back into the jungle.
She pauses when she hears a gurgle, a rattle. She changes how she holds the spear, using it to lead - if someone's dying, their murderer may be near.
no subject
He probably shouldn't groan that aside from Eva and her spear, realistically he wouldn't have trouble shuffling in and eating the two of them if he really wanted to.
(Which he did. It was a small miracle he hadn't).
The hunger gnashing its teeth at the sight of easy prey and howling in the back of his head, R stares forward. The smell of vomit, new and old, should be eye-watering. He has the idea that his gag reflex should be going into over time. Dry-heave. But his corpse refuses even that much, leaning forward slightly instead of rocking back on his heels. Eponine would probably go down easiest because she's not riddle with...parts like the old man is.
R bites down on the side of his cheek, clenching his jaw. He'd made it this far without killing anyone. If he can make it past today, past this cave with the weak and ill, then he can make it the rest of the Arena, right? Somehow he has to show them he's a monster, but he's not always a monster. Not a lost cause.
"Not...kill. Not...eat." A disappointed shudder runs up his spine. R guiltily squashes it down. "E-va's right. Want...to...help."
no subject
"He won't hurt anyone here. He has his head about him." She holds a palm out. She wonders how much Eponine and Sigma know about R's humanity, about the rather intelligent boy seemingly crippled by the body he's in, and all those nerves that don't seem to line up right post-mortem. "He's a friend."
Maybe he'll apologize for having eaten them last time.
She looks at her motley crew and feels her guts sink. They're worse than a ragtag bunch; they're hopeless. Sigma is clearly still sick and only barely cooperative with her; Eponine, on her best days, is somewhat difficult to control, and R is a matter unto himself. For a moment she wonders if it would be better to try and win this Arena on her own, like she did so long ago.
But times have changed. There are more than twice the number of Tributes in this Arena.
no subject
Eponine's tired - no, exhausted. And she can't fight Eva on this, verbally nor physically. She can't even get up and run. She will simply have to deal with R and Eva and Sigma and anyone else who wants to join possibly the most hopeless group in the arena.
"Fine. Fine - do as you will. But I still do not trust him to not nibble at my toes whilst you sleep, Madame. And if he is a friend, why do you risk trying to poison him. I do not care, but it seems an odd thing to do. Most everything seems peculiar today."
no subject
Exhausted as well, Sigma gives up on moderating the spectacle and curls up beside Eponine, ready to fall back to sleep guiltlessly now that Eva was around. "Well, good luck. We'll see how long it takes him to get hungry for Tribute," he retorts bitterly. If R went a few days without chomping down on Eponine's leg, perhaps he'd think to forgive him. Sigma suddenly turns away from Eponine and coughs hackingly into his arm, making a point of doing so as away from Eva as he can in their small space. He was furious with her for bringing R here, but he still respected her and wanted her to stay healthy. With a groan, Sigma rolls back into his depression in the dirt and closes his eye... tellingly, however, his bionic eye whirs to life and begins to watch what happens next.
no subject
R bites back the urge to groan again. By the time he gets anything out, they'll probably be rendered obsolete. He sways next to Eva, aware of that odd glow from Sigma's direction and the way Eponine didn't even sound accusing: she sounded resigned, which, in a way, was worse. It reminds him too much of his memories of Perry. Being Perry.
"Won't," R says, his groan weak. He shifts - wobbles - his body half toward Eva, as if she'll vouch for him. A Living shield against the two people he's already murdered, because must've died a coward and there's still shreds of that boy somehow. "Start...now? Helping...you guys..."
He tries to ignore that little niggling feeling in the botom of his guts at what Eponine said. Actually, it is a little weird. R assumes Eva just knows what she's doing and she's a good woman, she'll get everyone out of this and back on their feet. She's looking out after these two, isn't she?
no subject
She hopes Sigma's explanation of her logic suffices. She doesn't want the calculation of strategy and debt out in the air, poisoning their already noxious space.
"If it doesn't work, then I'll have to go further each day looking for any natural source of food here - but the plenty at the Cornucopia tells me they're going to try and starve us out. It's how they force us together when they're being especially uncreative."
no subject
(If she had her way, then Eva and Sigma would be married and that would be that. Happy families forever more.)
"Mama, I don't want you to go away. I want you to stay here with me. I don't want you to die. You have to win, Eva. You have to win for us so they don't send you back. You have to win so you can send me presents."