[OPEN] Go back to screaming and cursing

[and_my_pickaxe]

Who | Lin Mayuzumi, Guy Crood, and YOU!
What | Lin escapes the Compounds and stumbles across whoever might be in the jungle, including Guy.
When | Week 3
Where | In the jungle outside of the Compounds.
Warnings | Typical Lin Mayuzumi being an ass, for now.


Within the compounds Lin was well fed and watered - but, while this was more than could be said for many of the other Tributes, the lawyer could not consider her shelter a blessing. Day after day Lin patrolled the forcefield barrier diligently, backpack stocked, hunting knife in hand, marching like a good soldier for hours on end, waiting for the shields to come down. At night she hid herself in the white house's attics, inside boxes, beneath heaps of clothes, under sinks, anywhere a snooping Tribute was least likely to look. She did her best not to speak with any of the other prisoners, not to make an alliance nor to start a fight, and after awhile Lin felt no longer human but like a concept, surviving for survival's sake.

Then the alarm sounds, loud, unavoidable, and Lin screams and thrashes her head, covering her sensitive ears. When they feel as though they are about to pop, to bleed her to death, the terrible noise relents - and though deafened by the sound, when she looks up, the familiar, warped image of the forcefield is gone. She tosses a clod of dirt ahead, and once it rolls beyond the confines and does not fry, she does not need to be told twice: Lin bolts into the jungle like a bat out of hell.

She even stores her knife to avoid running herself through should she take an unexpected spill. Her hair, pulled into a high ponytail, bobs behind her like a pendulum as she tears through the trees. The only thing the woman is concerned with now is getting as far, far away from that place as she could.

If there was one thing she absolutely could not stand, it was being trapped.

Comments

[and_my_pickaxe]

Lin clicked her tongue, wondering how best to explain it. Even then, she wasn't sure he would get it, but she'd try her best. "Sort of," she says encouragingly. "It's metal. From the ground? A lot of it melted together. The manufacturers- I'm sorry, the workers- remove the air and put food inside to transport it and keep it from spoiling. It'll last indefinitely this way, at least until you open it."

She ran her finger through her bangs, allowing herself to calm down at last, amazed she was managing to hold a civil conversation with another Tribute. It was a first, for her. "...Understand?"

[acroodawakening]

It was hard to have an uncivil conversation when you were being relentlessly bombarded with questions.

"Oooh, that's metal, too. Some guy tried to explain that to me, it was just weird seeing it in that shape."

Now he was intensely curious.

"How does taking the air out keep it from spoiling?"

[and_my_pickaxe]

This was going to be, by far, the most difficult question of all. Lin tapped her chin while she thought of what to say. "There are microorganisms in the air and on the ground," Lin began slowly, staring into the sky. Looking upwards helped her think clearly, somehow. Science was not her forte, but she had a basic understanding of the concepts enough to break it down for him.

"Hm, they're sort of like bugs. Well, not quite, but.. let us stick with that for now. They're too small to see, but the longer the food is left out, the more microorganisms grow on the food, and they'll make you sick if you eat them. Um, but they won't hurt you by landing on your skin, for the most part, unless you touch your mouth or your food, if you're really dirty..." Ah. This would be a long conversation if she started to get technical.

The woman scratched her chin nervously. He had an eagerness to learn that she had to admire, but until she knew the area was secure, she wasn't comfortable sitting around talking. Suspecting this loop would go on forever if she did not gently put an end to it, Lin cut in before he could ask another question.

"..I'm Lin, by the way," she interrupted kindly. Normally Lin could not stand if she wasn't addressed as 'Miss Mayuzumi' or an equivalent, but she'd give this man a pass for being a tolerable person. Still, she didn't offer her hand in a handshake in fear of what other questions he'd ask if he didn't understand.

[acroodawakening]

"Oh! oh!" Guy said excitedly, though he still kept his voice hushed low. His eyes went wide with the kind of curiosity and wonder that usually only small children had. "Hawkeye told me about those. The little, the thingies? The tiny things. He said that's what gets in cuts and makes them get gross so you get sick. So those same things make you sick if you eat them, huh."

He nodded to himself slowly.

"That makes all kinds of sense."

Maybe that was why spoiled food was bad. Maybe it had those things in it! The corner of his mouth quirked at his sudden, new understanding of the universe.

"I'm Guy," he said, introducing himself since she'd done it. "Guy Crood."

[and_my_pickaxe]

Lin smiled, revealing clean, perfect white teeth through red lips. Her days in the Compounds had left her time to groom herself. "Yes! Exactly!"

Nervously Lin pushed her long bangs back behind her ears to occupy her trembling hands. She looked away for a moment with her lips pursed in thought. It wasn't like her to make friends so easily, let alone in situations like these, and for a brief moment she wonders what the audience must think. Perhaps there were captions below them now - wicked bitch of the east befriends cave troll! or something equally as unsavoury. Still, it was such a relief that remarkably, she found she didn't care. Good riddance to them!

And so Lin turned back to him. "...Nice to meet you, Guy." She didn't have to play to her type. She could still win this game by making allies, she was sure. Lin turned her head curiously, suddenly remembering what had started this whole thing: "By the way... What were you running from, earlier...?"

[acroodawakening]

"Oh, I was running from the death lizards," Guy said. "I lost them ages ago, though, I was mostly just running for the sake of running."

The unfortunate things with the carnivorous plants in this arena was that they could be very, very sneaky. And move very very quickly.

"You know how it is. The fear has to run its cour--whoaa!"

It happened very fast. Guy felt something creeping around one ankle and jumped slightly - he had a strong startle reflex. That was the only reason both legs didn't get snagged. He was flipped upside down with a sudden jerking motion and the spear fell from his hands.

He wasn't the only one the vines had targeted.

"Aw, come on!" he yelled in frustration. "It's bad enough we have these back home!"