thearena | There's plenty of time to sleep when we die;

Entry tags:

✘ ellie,
✘ kili

There's plenty of time to sleep when we die;

WHO| Kili and Ellie!
WHAT| Slumber party cookout gone wrong
WHERE| Third Floor - Cafeteria
WHEN| Early Week 1
Warnings/Notes| None that I know of atm!

At some point, Kili knows he needs to explore more of the arena, especially as his hunger grows and the animals seem to be stuffed with something decidedly not meat. There has to be food around here somewhere, right? Something to at least keep his stomach from grumbling too much and giving away his position in the dark. He'll have to surrender his position tucked into one of the dioramas, but he can either stay here and starve or forage. If he could find something to shoot and skin that wasn't filled with stuffing, he could use the fire-starting kit he'd acquired from one of the elevators recently.

So, venturing up one floor at a time, the dwarf has arrived at the cafeteria, an arrow nocked to the bow at his side as he moves as quietly as he can across the tile floor, which is easier said than done in armor. Past the main serving line, he sees a gleaming door of steel, which attracts his attention and curiosity as he moves slowly toward it. Such a strange thing to find in a place like this and he can't imagine the time it took to forge such a thing. Even the most elaborate carven stone could not measure up to constructing something such as this. He tugs on the handle, interested in seeing how heavy such a door could be, but finds it opening easily, much more so than most of the stone doors he'd ever seen.

And, seemingly in reward for that inquisition, he sees wrapped packages inside, stacked in neat rows. Venturing inside, he investigates one of these packages to find--- oh Mahal, food. Meat. Real meat. Fresh meat it seemed. Oh tonight he would have a feast fit for kings.

That is, if he hadn't thought he heard movement from somewhere behind him.

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Ellie had managed to scrounge herself a bow, but in the interest of keeping quiet it was at the moment slung over her shoulder. She only had two or three make-shift arrows, after all, she wasn't about to let them go to waste. So as she snuck quietly through the museum she kept on the lookout but wasn't prepared to immediately pounce - at least until she heard something coming from inside the cafeteria.

She'd looted cafeterias before, of course. They were a good place to find canned food, especially, so once she'd found a sign pointing this way she had made a beeline for it.

The fact that someone had made it there first was just her luck.

She drew in a breath and tried to creep into the kitchen as quietly as she could, to get a good look at who was already here. Just as quietly, she slowly pulled the bow from her shoulder...

It's almost more difficult to try to not hear things in the general silence that had set over the museum since the cornucopia, to not imagine scuffles of boots on tile or breathing of tributes. At least in the dioramas Kili had hidden in before, they had muffled the silence as well as the sounds, for better or for worse. It had made it easier to sleep when there was a stuffed wolf between him and anything else. Here in the cafeteria, it's entirely different, here the sounds echoed and even the sound of breathing seems almost deafening.

He turns slowly to see a girl standing there, a young girl by human standards and already too tall to be a dwarf. Swallowing, he drops the package of meat in one hand and sets his own bow on the ground before he raises his empty hands up, away from any weapons tucked underneath armor and heavy fabric.

"I won't hurt you," Kili offers in greeting, but he mentally notes where he could dive behind the metal cabinets and grab his bow again if she proved to be a threat. " 'm just here to get some food. There's some in here."

It was a little man. That was the only way she could frame it in her head, because she'd never seen anyone like him in her life. She'd met a little person, once, but even he hadn't looked like the man in front of her now. Her arrow was already notched but she paused just to look confused.

She recognized that armour. He must have got it from one of the exhibits--

And then he spoke, and she was forced to remember that he was probably a person and not a living manikin from a display case. (Hey. She'd seen weirder things.) She shook her head clear and carefully replaced the arrow back behind her as she stepped out into the open.

"... Yeah. Figured there might be. Kitchen, and all. Uh - who are you?"

It doesn’t take long to recognize the look of someone who has never seen a dwarf before. Despite the exile of the dwarves of Erebor, many peoples outside of Eriador had rarely seen his kind. Considering that he was the only dwarf he had seen here in the Capitol, it was safe to say he might very well be the only one here.

“Kili,” he dips his head toward her instead of a full bow, mostly because the paranoia that seemed to saturate the place had started to affect him. “At your service.”

He can’t help but tag on, “Never seen a dwarf before?”

She couldn't help the short, surprised laugh.

"Not a polite one," She said first, because that was what surprised her most of all. It could have been a rouse - get her to lower her guard first - but then they were in a kitchen and she was fairly sure that if she wanted something very sharp she could get it.

"But uh- no. Not really. Read about them, but-- Are you seriously a dwarf? Like... swords and sorcery and shit?" She kept her bow in her hand but took a few steps towards him.

It only took her a few seconds to realise that maybe she should introduce herself too.

"I'm Ellie. At your, uh, service."

Well, he certainly wouldn't put it down as 'swords and sorcery and shit,' but it seems an accurate enough estimation. Kili still raises his eyebrows at her particular choice in language though.

"I don't do sorcery myself, though, that's a wizard's business," he turns back toward the refrigerator to grab a handful of packages of meat. "And I prefer a bow more than a sword."

He gestures with his head toward the bow that he'd set on the tile floor.

She slowly slipped her own bow over her shoulder as she stepped up closer, leaning in to get a look inside the fridge.

"A wizard's business, huh," She said, half to herself. "Well. A dwarf and a dragon. I guess I've seen basically everything, now." She nodded to her weapon. "I prefer bows too. Though I'm alright with a knife, I guess. You new to all this?"

Kili's eyes go wide at the mention of a dragon, glancing around them as if it would swoop in just by saying the name.

"Dragon? Where? How big is it? Has it stolen anything from you?" He spits out as many questions he can think of. If Smaug had shown up here as well, there was no possibility of anyone winning without a Black Arrow and a Dwarven Windlance, neither of which he had seen in the dioramas thus far.

He doesn't bother answering her second question, fixating instead on the whole dragon thing.

Well that was a much more sudden reaction than she'd been expecting. She raises her hands and her eyebrows.

"Woah. Iskierka, yeah. She's uh - She's in my district. About as big as a cow, I guess? Apparently they made her smaller. And uh - no, she hasn't stolen anything from me." She looked pretty baffled that he would ask that. "She's alright, though. Honest."

"A dragon can't be alright," Kili replies with a shake of his head. "They incinerate everyone in their way, they steal entire kingdoms for themselves."

Clearly, she just didn't know about all these dangers about horrible dragons and he totally needs to educate her. He'll speak as he grabs a couple more packages of meat to set down on the counter.

"All dragons lust for gold, at the cost of all else."

"Uh, well, Iskierka kind of likes shiny things, yeah, but she's hardly a conqueror." She wet her lips, looking at the meat, and stepped forward to help him get it out.

"Look, we're all from different worlds, right? Maybe where she's from, the dragons aren't so bad."

"Different worlds?" Kili regards her with a heavy note of skepticism. What Venus had told him was that they were simply from far away lands, which is much easier on this dwarf's mind. "Dragons from any land are vicious creatures. They took our homeland from us, forced us into exile."

Still, he works and prepares like he isn't actively lambasting a fellow tribute, like he doesn't sound like Thorin in that moment. He looks around for some firewood or a spit of some kind. Perhaps some of those tables in the cafeteria could be broken down and used as makeshift firewood.

Well, now she felt really awful.

"... Sorry. I didn't know. Honestly though, she's... she's not that kind of dragon. So maybe there are different kinds? Maybe you guys would call her something else," She offered. She'd seen enough, by now, not to question someone losing their world to a dragon.

"I uh... I lost my 'land' to a plague. Not really exile, but it was pretty bad. Turned people into man-eating monsters, and spread. But I met someone here that had a plague too, just like mine, or so I thought, but then it turned out that he was still a person underneath, like me."

She dragged the last of the meat out with a grunt and closed the fridge door. "So uh... Maybe things are different, in different places, you know?"

He's about to start in again about how every type of dragon is in some way an evil, horrible monster when she mentions the plague that took hers. In an instant, he quiets down and goes still. He can't imagine such a thing, doesn't want to, and yet there's a lesson behind her words.

"I suppose," he admits, albeit with a low note of skepticism. It's not an outright doubting statement, but he can't picture any dragon doing anything but killing everything with dragonfire. "But I would trust a man or elf before a dragon."

After another beat of standing there, he investigates the stove, trying to figure out how it might work or if they would need to gather wood of some kind to make an open fire.

"Is there any wood around here?" he asks her, hoping to change the subject of conversation to something more gentle.

"Well, you're stuck with a girl instead, so I think you're probably safe," Ellie said, trying to offer him a reassuring smile.

When he asks about wood, it finally occurs to her just what he was looking for, and why.

"Oh!" She says suddenly, pulling up her foot in order to unzip the foot of her onesie, where she'd stashed her stuff. "Not exactly, but--" She pulls out the firestarting kit and grins. "This should get the stove started."

Kili smiles back, grateful for the company (and especially company that could wield a bow). He raises an eyebrow at her implication that there was something in the stove to light. As far as he could tell, there was no wood or coal to ignite nor even molten metal of any kind.

“But there’s no wood or coal in it,” he replies as he tugs open the stove door to gesture at the two simple metal racks in there. Certainly nothing that would catch easily and he couldn’t imagine that little fire-starting kit to be capable of melting the racks inside.

"Uh, yeah, because it's gas," Ellie said, though she somehow managed to refrain from adding 'duh'. He was a dwarf, after all. Dragons and sorcery and--

She gave him a bemused smile as she walked over to fiddle with the dials.

"Just watch, okay? Easier to watch than explain."

Edited 2014-01-31 05:13 (UTC)

Gas? Kili stares over at Ellie in complete confusion but does indeed watch her as she works, eager to learn what kind of magic could light a fire from gas. Clearly, she's a wizard of some kind, perhaps one of the blue ones Gandalf mentioned back in Eriador.

She turns the knob on the stove but the lighter doesn't work, just as she expected. She can still hear the hiss of the gas, though, which is awesome, and she grins as she takes out her kit.

She strikes the light and the gas ignites to make a blue circular ring of fire.

Watching closely, he doesn't quite understand the hissing sound or the blue flame that ignites in a brilliant ring under the grate.

"Magic," He breathes out slowly, curiosity taking priority above everything else right now. "It's liquid flame."

She grins. "Well, not quite magic, but near enough to make no difference I guess." She smiles at her success and then goes to look for pans.

"There's gotta be something to cook the meat on. You find anything?"

Kili stares in bewilderment at the magic fire for another moment or two before nodding. He retrieves a wok skillet from a cabinet and places it over the grate before emptying a couple packs of the meat into it. So strange that such a thing could exist alongside magic steel carriages and every other wonder he had witnessed since arriving here in the Capitol.

"This should work," he replies with a bright smile directed back her way.

"Perfect," She grins, leaning over him to get a good look at the meat. It was actually good - fresh and not green or grey and gross.

"Go on then, let's fry 'em up!"

Fresh meat is certainly an improvement over some of the more colorful foods Kili had seen in the capitol thus far, or any of those pastries. Meat was what made you strong and he has no qualms about sharing it with anyone. Perhaps later that would change, but for now a meal is only as good as the company. He produces a knife from one of his sleeves to stir the meat around with, only realizing afterwords that he probably shouldn't have done so while standing so close to Ellie.

"Do you see any spices?" He asks, trying to seem as non-threatening as he could.

Luckily for him, knives plus cooking seemed like a pretty logical step to her. So even though she started a bit at the sudden flash of a blade, she recovered quickly enough and didn't mention it as she pulled away to start searching through cupboards.

"It'll be fine without, long as you cook them right. I used to shoot rabbits in the middle of winter and cook them straight - didn't have a lot of supplies to 'spice them up' as it were..."

She opened and closed cupboards, making 'tsk' sounds as she worked her way through before stopping.

"Huh. I found some canned pineapples. That might be good."

Kili is familiar with rabbits enough with rabbits cooked straight, but they could hardly compare to well-seasoned roasts. A part of him supposes that he shouldn't be picky in the arena, that he should be grateful they found any food at all and meat at that. However, the generally inconsistent nature of where they were able to get food from is what bothers him most of all. Hunting animals would not be a problem, but he had to trust that this giant metal box could keep it from spoiling.

Such a strange place, this Capitol.

Before he can boast his own experience with hunting, she finds the pineapples and Kili glances away from where he's stirring the meat in the pan with his knife.

"Pineapples?" He frowns over at her, eyebrows furrowing curiously. "Never heard of 'em."

The meat is slowly beginning to sizzle as she holds out the can to him.

"They're a fruit. I've never seen one in real life, but we used to find cans of them all the time. Keep for fucking ever, so they're a life saver. They taste awesome. Probably wouldn't be bad on meat, or at least as a side dish, yeah?" She glanced around.

"Just need to find a can opener...."

Peering at the can, Kili frowns at the image on the paper surrounding it. It's quite colorful looking, really, but he's never seen something like that. Not even the apples in the autumn compared to the bright yellow. That said, her particular choice in phrasing makes him blink for a second.

"Wait," he thinks back to his conversation with Hawkeye before realizing, "the doctor told me about you!"

And anyone the doctor trusts, Kili figures he can trust with more than just a can of pineapples.

"The doctor?" Ellie said, frowning at him, before her eyebrows raised and she realised who he meant.

"Wait - you know Hawkeye? No fucking way! Have you seen him? I've been looking for him all over this fucking place!"

A thin white trail of smoke began to waft upwards from the pan.

"Last I saw of him, he was—" Kili begins before cutting himself off. The last he'd seen of the doctor, he'd been leaving Kili behind and the dwarf doesn't want to say that out loud. What if Ellie thought him too slow as well? He couldn't keep making friends only to lose them when they realized his age or his lack of warrior braids at his temples.

"Looking at the dioramas," He finishes, albeit not very convincingly. "On the second floor."

He, of course, doesn't notice that bit of smoke coming from their food.

"Second floor, awesome. Hey, when we're done here, wanna come help me look for h--"

She was cut off, abruptly, as the fire alarm suddenly began to wail, and after a half second delay, the sprinklers opened up above them.

At the blare of the alarm, Kili jumped, his bow drawn again in a simple motion. However, as soon as the first drops of liquid nitrogen splash against his skin, he recoiled with a cry. Every place they touched on his skin, pain followed and he couldn't get his bow tucked back away quickly enough. Instead of covering the food, he darted back toward the fridge, trying to take shelter in the door but nothing he seemed to do put him entirely out of reach of the burning rain.

Ellie yelped as the droplets hit her skin, pulling her hood up fast over her head.

"Run!" She yelled at him, but didn't wait - tearing as quickly as she could towards the nearest exist, running at full speed to escape the burning rain.

Kili glanced over at her suggestion to run from where he'd braced himself against the fridge. Yes running sounded much better than dealing with this here. With a nod he took off as well, but unfortunately in the opposite direction. His safest place was down on the second floor, around the dioramas with the fake animals and that's where he was headed. It would be only after he got settled again that he realized she wasn't with him and the quiet burst of guilt at that. A young girl on her own in the wretched museum. Some pillar of strength he ended up being.

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There's plenty of time to sleep when we die;

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are you alright with wrapping?