thearena | Just a walk in the woods; Open

Entry tags:

Just a walk in the woods; Open

Who| Garrus Vakarian and OPEN
What| Garrus is just checking a few places for some easy food, wandering around.
Where| All over the Arena
When| Throughout Week 6.
Warnings/Notes| Possible violence?

So far the Arena had been easy to navigate for Garrus, minus the rain and freezing cold temperatures, but he knew he was certainly fairing better than most of the others. With the arena a virtual buffet for him, and a knowledge of what was safe for both himself and humans to eat, he and Shepard had been moving from location to location in search of food. It was never a good idea to stay in one location, especially after they had found the raptor tracks near one of their camps.

He was worried about Shepard, even if she could ingest some of the food that the arena held, there was no nutritional content in it she could attain. At this point he was wondering if either of them would last to the end of the arena or if starvation would win out in the end. Even then, he found himself gathering enough food to at least feed himself, and enough to take the edge off for her.

He never trusted any of the streams in the area, but still he found himself crouched near one, pulling berries off of a shrub. He was always wary, but he was focused on his task knowing that he had help not far off in the trees.

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"Ooo, whatcha got there?"

The high pitched voice called in a friendly manner as a blond girl peered curiously out from behind a tree. She'd gotten this close without making a sound?

"Huckleberries? Blueberries? Maybe deadly nightshade?" She offered unhelpfully with a manic smile.

The fact that she had been able to sneak up on him had him wary, the manic smile only set him further on edge.

"None of those, they're Tislan berries." He replied, taking a few and eating them from the shrub. He didn't take his eyes off of her, watching her carefully from where he was crouched.

"Tislan? Never heard of em!" She slid around the tree and leaned against the trunk casually, arms folded across her chest.

"They from wherever you come from?"

"You could say that. They're from a colony world, actually." He replied and stood up, leaving the berries alone.

"Feel like trying a few? They're a little sour still."

Harley grinned and shook her head.

"Thanks but nah. I wouldn't feel right taking food from another hard working tribute when I've been living fat and happy off mashed potatoes and Dino meat.

That and while Harley may be gullible, she wasn't a total fool. Without her biological boost from Poison Ivy she would get sicker then sick eating any plantlife around here. She'd tried just a nibble and hadn't been able to leave her part of the compound for a whole three days!

All that just reminded her of how much she missed Ivy. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed sadly.

It couldn't be said that he didn't try. But if she had been eating the dinosaurs then it meant that there might've been another reason they had left him and Shepard alone for the most part. Why track another predator if it's not something that you can eat and might prove fatal?

"You're one of the few, most people here are starving to death."

"And really, where's the fun in that?"

She sighed and idly plucked. Twig from the tree she was leaning on, twisting it back and forth between her fingers.

"I mean for the most part this Arena is awesome. Dinosaurs, a big red button of random consequence, but watching everyone starve to death can't be all that fun!"

Her rations from the Compounds depleted, Lin stumbled through the jungle in a fog, dizzy with starvation. Her hunting knife in hand, she'd been lured to the stream by the sound of running water, hoping to drown away the hunger pangs.

With carelessness befitting a fool, borne mostly from her fatigue, Lin stepped out from the trees without first checking for company. Thankfully the tiny woman was light on her feet - it was only a noiseless step forward she'd made when her eyes fell upon the gatherer. She lifted her leg to draw herself back into the treeline, slowly, silently, but hesitated - what the hell was he doing with those berries?

And then she caught a glimpse of the man's face and nearly screamed. Lin covered her lips with delicate hands, muffling her surprise to a squeak, but the damage had been done. She fumbled for her backpack where she'd stowed her knife: there was no way he hadn't noticed her, now.

The noise of the stream covered the sounds of her footsteps but the squeak, that certainly caught his attention. Snapping his head to the side he rose, slowly to his feet. The last thing he needed was for her to panic and rush at him, especially so close to the water.

Instead he just put the handful of berries in his mouth and watched her. His own hand already hovering over the serrated hunting knife on his hip. He didn't want a fight, especially when she looked like she was about to keel over from starvation and fatigue.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

It could speak. Paralyzed, Lin could only stare open-mouthed, as if she had witnessed some demon rise out of hell. Worse still, how could he eat like that..?! She had tried a single berry to test for poison and had paid dearly for it, and this thing swallowed fistfuls whole.

The woman soon found her senses, and while she did not draw her knife from her backpack, she held her bag open, gesture half-completed, in suspended animation.

He didn't want to fight? A creature like that? Her eyes fell on the knife at his hip, same as hers. It would simply be a question of who had the longer arm, and that was no mystery to Lin. "...Not if I don't have to defend myself, no," she said tentatively, eyes narrowed, almost a question. If he did attack, she'd have to stall, somehow: part of her expected him to keel over momentarily.

"Then zip up your bag." He replied, hand moving away from his knife as he turned back to the shrub he had been collecting berries from to pick a few more off and eat them. He didn't fully turn away from her but he wasn't interested in fighting a half starved woman.

"You can close your mouth, I'm not going to do anything." He really wasn't in the mood to be considered entertainment for the Capitol either. Still wary of what she might do he turned his head to watch her again.

Lin did as instructed and stepped out of the trees, nearly tripping where a vine had already started to wrap around her leg. Served her right for gawking, she supposed.

Wrenching her ankle out of the wrap ungracefully, she then stood up straight, arms pressed against her side in a neutral stance. "You're not going to kill me? Why?" Not beginning a fight was more or less merciful at this stage, as well as completely unheard of, especially for demons of lore.

"Those berries were poisonous," she added quickly, half in thanks and half in an attempt to shift some power back to her.

"I don't fight people that are half starved and haven't threatened me." He replied simply and shifted to a different bush of the same type to pick off the most ripe of the fruit there. Call him old fashioned but even in a fight to the death, he'd rather not end up picking off the mostly defenceless, unless they were a threat and she didn't seem like one.

"They're only poisonous if you're allergic to them," was his reply as he pointedly looked at her and ate a few more. "How many did you eat?"

The woman flinched, flushing in embarrassment - she hated to be seen as weak, especially by men (at least, she assumed this creature was male). But her skin was beginning to show its bones through a sickly white complexion... She certainly was becoming a sight for the cameras now, wasn't she?

Tentatively, Lin took a step forward to gauge if this man would keep to his word. Perhaps for once, she had no intention of jumping the other Tribute, but was legitimately curious about what he had said.

"Allergic?" Lin looked away, red blush deepening, fixing her hair. It wasn't ladylike to admit she'd spent a day doubled over and vomiting, among other things. Now she discovered that she couldn't eat them because she was allergic - and worse, there were those that had been filling their stomachs on them all this time? Bastards! "I... I tried one..." From a few different bushes, that was. She'd assumed at least one would be non-toxic. She was wrong.

Julian's rabbit-quick mind was still reeling as he stumbled through the forest--nothing quite worked to catch one off-guard as being suddenly spirited away to another planet (because he assumed that was what this was, even though it was obviously populated by Humans--this wasn't his Earth, nor any colony he was familiar with) and told he was being forced to fight to the death. He'd been stripped of his uniform, his commbadge, his phaser rifle, his medkit. There was absolutely nothing on his person to distinguish himself as a Starfleet officer, or indeed as anything but someone who had gotten terribly lost on an evening walk. And here he was supposed to kill?

He was a doctor. Only a soldier when necessary. Killing fellow captives, because surely these other people were captives, just as he was, didn't sit well with him.

The temptation to just sit somewhere and escape into the hallways of his mind was very nearly overwhelming. Instead, Julian rifled through the room where he'd stored his memories and knowledge from the Academy survival courses--obtain shelter and scout the area first. Water second. Food could wait, a healthy adult human could go weeks without--and with his enhancements he could manage even longer while still being in acceptable overall health.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost walked straight into the alien without seeing them first. Julian stopped short--running through his knowledge of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Quadrant races and coming up with nothing, though he did look something like a Jem'Hadar. Only barely, and in the face.

Fantastic, so he also potentially got to make first contact today. Assuming whoever this was wasn't far more accepting of their whole situation and would kill him first.

Julian held his hands up in the universal gesture of 'I'm unarmed and harmless' before speaking and hoping he was understood--his universal translator was gone along with his commbadge. "Er, hello."

The crunching of the under brush had Garrus immediately on edge, mostly because he didn't know who would be foolish enough to make so much racket walking through woods filled with predators. Although his suspicions were confirmed when the man nearly walked into him beside the shrubs.

He didn't look like much of a threat and judging by his sudden gesture he certainly wasn't the soldier or fighting kind. He wasn't a threat and after a moment he relaxed fractionally. Garrus hadn't even realized his hand had gone to his hunting knife unconsciously until he stood up to his full height and ate the last few berries in his hand.

"You're going to get eaten by one of the velociraptors if you make that much noise just walking through the trees."

Julian's surprise is obvious on his face. Excuse me?

"Velociraptors?"

Oh bloody fantastic. This just kept getting better. Maybe he'd wake up and be back in the cavern on that class-M planet they'd landed on, still waiting for a rescue. He'd even prefer the Dominion internment camp he'd spent five weeks languishing in. He stepped backwards as the alien rose to his full height--damn tall--and, notably, was very nearly silent this time, having already adapted to this new nugget of awful information.

"...wonderful." This day could certainly get worse, but Julian wasn't sure how at this point.

"I'm surprised you haven't seen their tracks, but they keep more to the centre of the island." Which as the rains continued they were being pushed closer and closer to. That made Garrus wary, especially since he hoped that they merely continued skirting around people they believed were not worth the effort.

"You haven't run into many people in this arena, have you?"

Granted, he hadn't been looking. Even if he had, he didn't think he would recognize dinosaur tracks, of all things. He was a doctor, not a paleontologist.

"Whatever gave you that impression," Julian says dryly. Granted, he probably should be more cautious--less mouthy--but he couldn't help his nature.

"In fact, I've just arrived." The welcoming committee was less than stellar.

"Well, you're not half starved and looking to find any chance to win that you can, that and you don't know much about what's been happening as far as large predators in the immediate area." It was an honest observation if a brutal one, and he wasn't going to sugar coat anything in this arena.

"You're lucky, I've been here about six weeks now. You missed the initial bloodbath. There's only about a third of the original people who began in this game here now." Which he doesn't seem to mind too much, in fact he doesn't even really seem concerned that people are killing one another.

Julian didn't mind the honesty, even if it was a bit brutal. It was nothing but the truth, and it grounded him.

"So they were serious." Julian looks concerned enough for the both of them. Despite the war, he was raised in a society that had been largely at peace for decades. And while he'd killed before, in the capacity of a soldier, he was a healer first and foremost. And now he was trapped in a fight only one would walk away from, and he couldn't count on a timely rescue from the Defiant.

Breathe, Julian. There had to be another way out of this.

"Well then. I'm Lieutenant Julian Bashir, Federation Starfleet."

"Garrus Vakarian, I'm guessing since you're not trying to stab me or run off screaming into the trees you've seen a few aliens before." Which was interesting, he hadn't had a change to meet many people, let alone humans, that had travelled in space.

"But yes, they were serious about a fight to the death."

The corner of the doctor's mouth quirked upward. "I have, Mr. Vakarian. Quite a few, in fact."

His eyes close for a brief moment--with his ears, he wasn't concerned about an approach. He would hear it before he was hit, if this man seemed particularly inclined to attack him--which he didn't.

"Well. I don't intend to kill anyone, but if you know of anyone in need of medical attention--there I can be of some assistance."

"Just Garrus, but I'm sure you'll find most people here are dying of starvation. I don't think you can do much about that though." Which was the horrific truth of this arena. People were starving and there was nothing they could do, even if they didn't have allergic reactions to the plants there was no possible way for their bodies to absorb any nutrients. It was kinder to kill people now than to let them starve to death.

And yet, Garrus still couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Not sure if you know anything about turians but I have a gash on my hand that doesn't seem to want to heal entirely."

"Garrus, then."

Without medical supplies, unfortunately not. He had not so much as a tricorder to his name. Julian frowned slightly--not only were they expected to kill, they didn't seem to be provided for, either.

"There seems to be plenty of flora around, I assume most of it is inedible for some reason or other?" Otherwise, why in the world would people be starving? Some of these certainly looked like what had been pointed out to him in his survival classes back at the Academy.

"I could take a look. I can't say that I do know anything of Turian physiology, but I didn't know much about Cardassians either, before I had to keep a particularly recalcitrant one alive."

"This place is dextro-amino acid based." He explained simply and held out his hand for the medic to see. He'd clarify if he needed to but that should've been explanation enough for most medical professionals.

He held out his hand for inspection. It wasn't horrible but for a gash that had been healing for two weeks it didn't look as healed as it should've, despite the crude sutures.

"I guess you'll learn on your feet then, I haven't heard of a Cardassian before."

"Well, that would certainly explain it." A base incompatibility with the amino acids that made up everything in this place...Julian couldn't say he had seen anything like that firsthand, but there had been a multitude of theories and studies taking place at Starfleet Medical that put forth that eventuality. Surely with all the worlds out there, the difference would be encountered sometime.

Julian is careful as he takes Garrus's hand, examining the edges of the wound with a practiced eye. "This must have been deep. Who stitched it for you?"

He glances up as he continues. "Well, I hadn't heard of a Turian before today either. I suppose it's one of those sorts of days.

Anyway, they're a very enigmatic species. They don't care to share information, even medical."

"My Commander, she's not a medic but we've been on enough missions to know the basics." Sometimes Medi-gel couldn't fix everything, especially when you were out somewhere like this after a long fight.

"There are a few races like that, if they have a secret they'll do their best to keep it that way. Too bad it almost always comes to bite them in the end," and usually he was tagging along with Shepard to clean up the fall out. But now, this was an entirely new scenario and he wasn't too sure what to do about it.

"She did a good job." For someone with no formal training, of course.

"I'm afraid that if I disturbed it at this point, I would be doing more harm than good. Has the area been feeling warm or swelling at all? Particularly painful?" He couldn't see any of the signs of infection he was used to, but that armored plating made it difficult to truly discern.

Julian smiles slightly at the thought of what Garak's remark would surely be. "Until it reaches that point, there's no changing a tiger's stripes." Or a Cardassian's scales.

"Some species never change, but, there's always a few you'll find that are a little different within them." He was glad to hear that his stitches were holding well, it was annoying to constantly have them there but he'd rather that than infection setting in.

"No, it hasn't given signs of infection, it's just been healing more slowly than normal."

Edited 2013-12-01 05:13 (UTC)

Such sutures were dangerous in their own way--an infection could turn into an abscess, with no way to drain. But without signs of infection, and truly on its way to healing...he could at least make a couple theories as to the delay.

"Well, the hand is always a tricky place--the bending of joints and stretching of skin and all. But there are a multitude of factors that interfere with natural healing--stress is one common one. Malnutrition is another. Now, I'll take a guess and say the latter isn't a pressing concern for you, as I stumbled upon you gathering food--you're biologically compatible with this place, are you not? But I would certainly say this is a stressful situation."

The body dealt with stress in its own way, just as the people behind the flesh and bone did--impaired healing was just one of those ways. It truly didn't deal well.

"I'd say I'm one of the only ones compatible with this environment. But as you might be able to tell I'm not designed to live on berries and fruit for too long." Since their wire for snares had run out about a week ago and most of the game that was left was too scared from the raptor's movement to take any chances.

"Thanks for looking at it, good to know I'm not going to drop dead any time soon from this." He said, taking back his hand and flexing it gently.

"So it could still be that." A lack of protein would make healing extremely difficult after a while.

"As long as you keep it clean. I'd say to refrain from using that hand if possible, but it doesn't seem like it is."

"In a place like this, just keeping it from re-opening is asking a lot." Sadly, that was the truth, he hoped that the doctor was ready for the truth of the arena. Kill or be killed and he doubted the man in front of him had the capacity to kill in cold blood.

"Yes, well. I'd tell you to call me in the morning if it gets worse, but." An old joke he'd heard a few times, at Starfleet Medical, but it certainly seems to fall flat right now.

Julian had killed before--just earlier today, to his perspective, a senseless mockery of a battle that had ended in a rout. He'd handled a phaser rifle just as the others had. But there was a vast difference even between that situation and this one.

"Well, it seems there's nothing left for me to do but wish you luck." They could all use a bit of it, Julian thought, even with his extremely limited experience.

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Just a walk in the woods; Open

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